Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-17-Speech-3-380"
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"en.20081217.24.3-380"2
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"Madam President, I can only agree with what has been said just now. I will begin with the second question.
The directive or the regulation of the European Community on education of children of migrant workers has existed since 1977, in other words for over 30 years, so it is a question involving the Member States – old, new, less old and less new – in respect of conditions for educating future generations.
This directive actually requires Member States to provide education to these children in the language of the host country, in other words, in the official language of the country and, at the same time, to support education in the original language of birth and the culture of the country of origin, in cooperation with the country in question. Hence, on the one hand, there is a duty to provide and, on the other, a duty to assist. In any case, the issue of migrant children forms part of this Green Paper or Green Report so there will be discussions and possible further steps or recommendations. We are currently in the listening phase and we may subsequently take concrete action including legislation as educating the children of migrant workers forms a very important part of their adaptation and integration. There is evidence that in many cases, problems arise precisely due to the lack of, or the poor quality of, education provided in this context.
As far as the first question is concerned about teachers and the brain drain – firstly, I think it is very important for the Union to pay more attention to high-quality teacher training. This happened for the first time last year and the issue is highly important since whatever reforms or modernisations are discussed or implemented in education, teachers will form the central component of this process and they must be the subjects and not the objects of it. Topics such as lifelong learning, of course, begin with teachers. Teachers must be the first in line for lifelong learning, if it is to be passed on to the younger generation. Mastering many new topics and experiences and technology in the education process is very important. The ageing population also applies to teachers. Many countries in the Union are confronting a growing shortage or deficit of teachers and it is estimated that there will be a shortfall of more than a million teachers in the coming decade since in many countries more than half of teachers are over the age of 50.
I am touching only on the margins of the overall problem, but the brain drain is related to how much we value brainpower and how we will invest in intellectual property, talent and enabling people to develop gifts at home rather than leaving in search of better opportunities. It is precisely for this reason that support should go, for example, not only to major improvements in the quality and accessibility of education, but also to the relevance of education. These should be goals for next year which has been declared European Year of Creativity and Innovation. The entire Union must direct greater efforts towards becoming more attractive to highly trained individuals and towards attracting talent rather than simply bemoaning the exodus of talent. And, of course, it is up to individual countries to invest more in education even now, even because of the crisis, as investments in education are decisive and fundamental even at a time like this if we are to emerge from the crisis better prepared for competition, more able to innovate and simply with a stronger human potential.
I would just like to conclude by saying that it is not possible to achieve long-term serious and reliable collaboration in the area of education without paying special attention to the issue of teachers, high-quality teacher training and support for their continuing education, not just at the beginning, but also throughout their careers."@en1
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