Brussels, 13 June 2018

ECSWE position on school funding taken up
european parliament
European Parliament resolution calls for better funding of independent schools and educational choice

On 12th June 2018, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment adopt­ed its res­o­lu­tion on the “Mod­erni­sa­tion of Edu­ca­tion in the EU”. The report cov­ers impor­tant top­ics such as free­dom in edu­ca­tion, diver­si­ty in assess­ment and media edu­ca­tion that ECSWE has worked on for many years. While the doc­u­ment is not bind­ing for Mem­ber States or the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, it can become a valu­able polit­i­cal tool for both Euro­pean lev­el and nation­al lev­el advocacy.

What did we demand? ECSWE’s advo­ca­cy work main­ly focused on the school edu­ca­tion chap­ter and cov­ered the fol­low­ing demands:

  • With regards to free­dom in edu­ca­tion, we lob­bied for the right to estab­lish schools based on dif­fer­ent ped­a­gog­i­cal approach­es, the right of parental school choice, ade­quate fund­ing of inde­pen­dent non-prof­it schools and the idea of free­dom of curriculum.
  • With regards to diver­si­ty in assess­ment, we pro­mot­ed more for­ma­tive and per­son­alised forms of assess­ment and high­light­ed the neg­a­tive effects of stan­dard­ised tests on teach­ing and learning.
  • With regards to age-appro­pri­ate media edu­ca­tion we high­light­ed that a mean­ing­ful use of dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy in edu­ca­tion requires a sol­id foun­da­tion in basic and social skills and the abil­i­ty to think critically.

What is in it for the Wal­dorf move­ment? ECSWE’s lob­by work was a suc­cess as many of our ideas were tak­en up. Sev­er­al pas­sages cov­er our three focus top­ics free­dom in edu­ca­tion, diver­si­ty in assess­ment and media edu­ca­tion. One key achieve­ment is a para­graph estab­lish­ing the right to free­dom of edu­ca­tion­al choice that calls for pub­lic school fund­ing for inde­pen­dent non-prof­it schools. Oth­er para­graphs include the notions of age- and devel­op­ment appro­pri­ate media edu­ca­tion, more auton­o­my for schools regard­ing cur­ric­u­la and diver­si­ty in assessment.

Read the res­o­lu­tion on mod­erni­sa­tion of education

A question? Please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Georg Jürgens