[Digest] Study presentation – The European Schools system: State of Play, Challenges and Perspectives

Committee on Culture and Education – Study requested by CULT Committee, commissioned and managed by the Policy Department – “The European Schools system: State of Play, Challenges and Perspectives” – Presentation by Sandra Leaton Gray, Ildar Daminov and Simonas Gausas, Visionary Analytics

Brussels, 15 June February 2022

European Schools System (ESS) is an inter-governmental system of educational establishments – both traditional and accredited European Schools – that offers multicultural and multilingual education to children across EU Member States. The ESS educational system generally functions well. Nevertheless, it faces particular challenges in pedagogical quality assurance and language learning. The study examines the progress that the European Schools System has made during the past decade, overviews its state of affairs as of 2022 and pinpoints the key challenges that the system currently faces and provides tailored recommendations on how to overcome them.

A presentation of the study, organized by the EP’s Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies was held on 15 June 2022 and focused on the following issues:

• What are the European Schools (ES)?
• Previous assessments of the ES
• Educational dimension, in particular questions related to teaching and learning
• Operational dimension, in particular as regards administrative and managerial sides of the system
• Policy recommendations

The debate that followed the expert’s presentation referred to, among others:

• challenges related to quality assurance system
• mission of the ES
• replicability of the ES model
• inclusion policy challenges within the ESS
• situation of locally hired teachers
• role of accredited schools
• infrastructure and school facilities and future expansion of the ESS