Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-22-Speech-1-187"
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"en.20080922.26.1-187"2
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"Commissioner, I believe we can agree that adopting a report on such a current, key topic as the quality of teacher education is good news, given that the aim of teacher education is in fact quite simply to improve pupils’ education and give them knowledge which provides them with intellectual maturity and a critical mindset while at the same time providing them with the skills necessary to be able to participate in a society which is increasingly competitive and demanding.
Fourthly, promoting decision-making at school level; in other words, greater autonomy bearing in mind the different backgrounds of each school and the various stakeholders involved in each school community: parents, local cultural amenities, etc.
Commissioner, this report, in accordance with the provisions of Article 149 of the Treaty on the Union on education and training, will not be binding on the Governments of the Member States. It is nonetheless a resolution to which regard should definitely be had.
Key issues such as those surrounding education are also closely related to the values of the Europe of the future and European citizenship, and I therefore ask the Commission to support this report from the Committee on Culture and to do its utmost to defend the proposals it contains to the Council.
Ladies and gentlemen, in our conversations we often note the importance of thinking about the kind of country we are going to leave to our children. We should also think about the kind of citizens we are going to leave to our countries, and that is an area in which education has a crucial part to play.
This is a concern shared by many stakeholders, from pupils to their parents, the teaching profession and business leaders among others. In Europe there are currently over six million teachers performing this key role in developing the knowledge and skills of society’s young people and making a decisive contribution to improving the opportunities for economic growth and greater competitiveness.
Current working conditions in this sector are more complex and more demanding: classrooms are more heterogeneous from the social and cultural point of view, teaching concentrates on individual learning, teachers have gone from being
trainers to being classroom managers; there is a requirement to have a good knowledge of foreign languages and information and communications technologies (known as ICT), not only as a means of transmitting knowledge but to be able to use them as a teaching tool.
The data available to us show that there are shortcomings in teaching quality; this is in line with the increased complexity of the profession mentioned above, and it makes greater investment in teacher education crucial during both initial training and in-service training, and highlights the need for greater support in the first years of a teaching career.
There is also a whole range of related issues which should be taken into consideration: considerable differences in salaries between countries, and differences relative to average wages within the same country, a high proportion of older workers, demotivating working conditions in some cases, low numbers of people wanting to enter the profession, etc.
This is the context in which this report was written. It proposes various recommendations which I shall now summarise:
First, we need to attract better candidates into the profession, a factor which is closely linked to improved status in society and the remuneration of the teaching profession. This involves improving the working conditions of the teaching profession by formulating proposals to support teachers in their first years in the job; young teachers could gain from the knowledge of older teachers, who could reduce their contact hours with pupils and spend more time in applied research and transfer of knowledge.
It also involves investing in initial and in-service education for teachers, making university education compatible with professional development and facilitating improved qualifications and skills for existing teaching staff.
Thirdly, encouraging the exchange of good practice by enhancing mobility programmes, especially under the Comenius programme, which also contributes positively to the updating of language skills."@en1
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