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European Schools – a new direction

•  Advantages and disadvantages of European Schools

• The future

• I have a dream – a new European school

• Final proposal

• Annexes

  • Annex 1: Some numbers concerning European schools and normal schools in Europe

  • Annex 2: The New European school – some financial considerations

 An updated version (pdf) of this article was published in 2002.

Advantages and disadvantages of European Schools

1. The main advantages of the European schools are:
1. They offer a multicultural educational environment and graduates have a wider European perception with less prejudices about foreigners.
2. They offer an education to children of EU Institutions' officials in their mother tongue and in that way they allow them to return to their country of origin if they so decide. This was the main reason they were created in the first place.
3. They offer a very good environment for the learning of many European languages.
2. And the main disadvantages:
1. They are under the authority of an organ (Board of Governors – Conseil Supérieur) created in an intergovernmental context. The result is that management and organisation are a «paradox» sui generis and they do not keep up with the principles of a proper management implemented by other Community Institutions ‑ the Board of Governors is not liable before the European Parliament and is in fact an almost uncontrollable Institution.
2. They are considered «elitist» from local societies and because of the non-transparent management their cost to European taxpayers is extremely high (more than the double if the yearly expenditure per pupil is considered).
3. Although they offer high quality education, they have apparently not responded to the new requirements of modern times and have serious lacks in infrastructure for education in sciences and information technology. (Cf. with new initiative on quality indicators – report and prοposal).

The future

1.  It is foreseen that the number of pupils will increase with new adhesions of Central and Eastern European Countries. New language sections for these countries will have to be created. Given the unwillingness of Community Institutions to increase the budget, European schools are before a dilemma:
1. Either closedown small European schools (Mol-BE, Varese-IT, Bergen-NL, Culham-UK), a solution deemed unacceptable for reasons related with personnel policy.
2. Or establish and implement strict criteria for the creation and maintenance of language versions. This solution that has been put aside for the moment will, if adopted, mean the closedown of mainly Greek, Portuguese, Scandinavian and eventually Italian language sections.
2. Even if some countries oppose the above proposal, the non-transparency of the decision making process within the Board of Governors and the purely financial argumentation will certainly lead to some kind of reduction of the weak language sections. These sections are already seen with skepticism on the basis of the significantly small economic contribution of the corresponding States to the budget.

I have a dream – a new European school

1. The European schools of the future could be based on the experience gained from the ten existing European Schools. They should be established within any European Union country and should have the following essential characteristics:
1. Offer a multi-cultural education of high quality and a spirit of tolerance and mutual understanding.
2. Offer at least two European languages in addition to the national language taught in the school. These languages should be taught by native speakers preferably originating from the Member State this language is spoken. The language lessons should start at the first primary and continue for at least one hour a day for the whole 12-year educational cycle. Offer several additional matters of the secondary cycle (e.g. History, Geography, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Economy, Sociology) in the foreign languages and with accredited native speaker professors originating from the Member State this language is spoken.
3. Organize at least one full language section for children of foreigners (or natives) that wish to offer to their children a 12-year education in this language (or a 9-year or a 6-year cycle depending from the number of children). Pupils of this section will be taught in the secondary cycle at least 3 main subjects in their own language and the rest in one of the other languages taught in the school.
4. Organize teaching of a minimum of subject matters through modern computer technologies and networks in collaboration with other European schools in other Member States.
2. The following organizational aspects should apply:
1. European schools will be the subject of a Community wide program. Criteria and other practical details will be laid down in a Decision of the Council and the program concerning European schools will be governed by normal (first pillar) Community law (involvement of European Parliament, Court of Justice, Court of Auditors). The actual intergovernmental structure will be abolished.
2. Under the new scheme the European school is in principle a normal public (or private) school that decides to offer a European education as described above.
3. The title «European School» will be attributed by the European Commission with the help of a Management Committee constituted by representatives of the Member States (in a somewhat similar way to the one used to attribute a «blue flag» to clean beaches).
4. The schools will be public (or private) educational establishments under the jurisdiction of the host country. They will submit a full proposal to the Commission in the context of a call for proposals and they will be selected on the basis of previously defined and transparent criteria. Cost-benefit considerations will be taken into account for attributing the title. Schools that wish to get the title without requesting Community financial contribution should be able to do so but they will be subject to the same quality criteria and inspections as the rest of the European schools.
5. The new-type European schools will all follow a similar curriculum for all subject matters taught. This curriculum will be the basis of the quality control assessment by independent evaluators and inspectors. Pupils will get a European baccalaureate with subjects and criteria established at European level.
6. Inspectors from Member States will regularly inspect European schools in other Member States to ensure application of commonly agreed quality criteria.
7. Community budget will cover the differential cost of establishing and operating a European School. For children of Community officials a special allowance will be paid as is the case today. For extremely small sections the differential cost may be covered by other means (Host Member State, Member State of the proposed language section, parent contributions, private funds-mecénat, special Community contribution, etc.). Categories should be abolished – the cost for each pupil should be established and then covered either via the normal funding of the school or via the European school project. The establishment of innovative tools using projects in new technologies may be financed within other National or Community initiatives.
8. Teachers from one Member State called to work in a European school in another Member State will be selected by the inviting country in collaboration with their country of origin on the basis of commonly agreed and transparent procedures and criteria. They will be part of the staff of the European school for a given period of time (to be provided in the Council decision). They will be subject to the same work conditions (including salary, insurance and pension rights) as the rest of the teachers of the host country (free movement of persons legislation should apply). They need not necessarily come from the public educational system of their country of origin.
3. Advantages of the proposed solution:
1. More Schools will benefit from the solution. The idea of the European schools will thus expand. Politically this may be very significant in view of the promotion of a new policy in the field of education. The principle of subsidiarity is respected. The new European schools do not benefit only the children of EU officials but the local school community as well.
2. Foreign pupils will be better integrated into the society of the host country while maintaining strong links with their country of origin.
3. Language sections will be easier to set up as the differential cost will not be to difficult to cover.
4. Language teaching will be enhanced even for less spoken Community languages.
5. Administration through well-established and fairly transparent procedures that are subject to democratic control (European Parliament, Court of Justice, Court of Auditors).
6. Fewer overheads for management of the schools (Conseil Supérieur, sub-committees, Directors and Assistant Directors, Conseillers d'éducation, administrative personnel, informatics and other infrastructure): normally most of this is already available for the national school that will decide to become European.
4.  Possible points of concern:
1. The existing structures will certainly react to any change of their privileged status.
2. In several cases it may be difficult to set up European schools where they may be needed i.e. near EU installations.
3. The exact impact for each Member State and for the Community budget should be carefully analyzed.

Final proposal

The Council should ask the Commission to study the problem and come up with a well-analysed proposal. Meanwhile all decisions within the actual framework of the European Schools about their future should be postponed.

 Panagiotis (Takis) Alevantis, Maria Chryssou

 
Annex 1
Some numbers concerning European schools and normal schools in Europe

 Table 1: General structure of the budget of the European Schools (1999)¹

It is evident that Member States cover only 22% of the total budget – mostly by paying their own teachers.

Table 2: Contribution of Member States to the budget of the European schools in €
Member States in bold support the establishment of new rules for reducing language sections (1999)¹.

The costs are high in the four first contributors mainly because:

• There are English, French and German sections in all European Schools as these are the main languages (first foreign languages, languages in which are taught History, Geography, Economy in five of the secondary cycle classes). Closing the Greek or Portuguese sections and establishing only four language sections as originally proposed by the working group will make the German, British and French contribution higher.
• The Belgians insist in keeping a second Dutch speaking section in Brussels for purely political reasons although there are not enough pupils.
• The Belgians are paying infrastructure, maintenance and operating costs for the schools. Abolishing some sections will not necessarily diminish these costs – pupils will still go to school in Belgium either European or Belgian. However the positive impact of the presence of the EU institutions in Brussels has been estimated to be 300 billions BF.
• It is a fact that salaries are higher in Germany, the UK and France in comparison with Greece and Portugal.

Table 3: Expenditure in € per pupil/student in European schools (1999)¹

Table 4 : Expenditure in € per pupil/student in public institutions by level of education, PPS (1995)²

Annex 2
The New European school – some financial considerations

1.  Basic assumptions
1. Number of pupils per class
• Minimum 10.
• Maximum 27 (new class created when 28 pupils are enrolled)
2. Each language section is made up of the following classes:
• one kindergarten
• 5 primary and
• 7 secondary.
3. This means that the total number of pupils per language section will be
• Minimum 130
• Maximum 500: at this number the creation of a new section should be considered within another school.
• Average 350
4. Each language section will have the following staff
• Minimum12
• 6 teachers for kindergarten and primary
• 6 high-school professors for language I, mathematics, Physical sciences, History/Geography. It is supposed that several subject matters are taught in another language and that foreign language teachers are available across language sections.
• Maximum 20
5. Language sections per school
• Minimum 2 (maximum 1.000 pupils)
• Maximum 3 (maximum 1.500 pupils) only in special cases, schools could have 4 language sections i.e. maximum 2.000 pupils.
6. Each school will have horizontal staff of
• Teachers 5 (arts, gymnastics, religion, additional activities especially informatics)
• Management and logistics 7 (Director, 2 Assistant directors, 2 secretaries, accountant, information technology personnel).
2. Differential costs per language section
1. Estimated at 2 to 2,5 M€ per year
• Personnel: 15 profs, 3 management @ 70.000³ €/year =     1.260.000 €/year⁴
• Other costs : maintenance, heat, electricity etc.                        740.000 €/year
2. A lump sum of 1 M€ per year for a maximum of 5 years may be given to a new European school to co-finance infrastructure adaptation.
3. Other considerations:
1. Categories of pupils (I, II, III) should be abolished.
2. As differential costs for European schools will be covered by the EU budget, EU officials will continue to receive the actual education allowance.
3.  European schools near EU institutions will have to accept a maximum of 60% of EU officials' children.
4. Charges for children should be imposed only if national legislation provides for such charges in public-funded schools.
5. Private companies and other organizations that want to finance European schools to benefit the children of their employees may do so but the school will have to present this source of financing in the plan that will be submitted to the Commission for funding. Corresponding percentages of pupils will then be allowed from these organizations.

4.               Annual budget :

An eventual financial contribution of EU officials with a symbolic annual sum of 1.500 €/pupil (less than half of the EU average) could increase receipts by 13,5 M€ and help pay for 5 to 7 additional language sections.

If Member States want to contribute additionally (i.e. by paying national salaries of seconded personnel) their contribution will be added to the general budget as a receipt and this could further increase the language sections supported.

Footnotes

1. Work Document PE 227.940 of the European Parliament, Budgets Committee, Author Herbert Bösch (back)
2. Source: EUROSTAT (back)
3. Covers all salary costs (in host country as well in country of origin). (back)
4. Special arrangements should be made for transfer of pension rights for seconded personnel. (back)
5. Private enterprises, individual parents (back)