Victor Hugo, 1850
Despite not having the direct of competency on educational matters, the involvement of European institutions in Education has increased exponentially since 1995 through the open-method of coordination. The budget for Education represents 1% of the total budget of the EU while in 1986 it represented only 0.1%. The educational strategy of the EU is based on four main objectives: making lifelong learning a reality; improving the quality and efficiency of education; promoting equity and social cohesion; and enhancing creativity and innovation.
All four objectives are considered a priority for the European Commission, but the accent is put on ‘lifelong learning’. Indeed, the promotion of learning experiences for all ages is considered an essential approach in order to improve the employability and competitiveness of European citizens. On the other hand, the potential scope to achieve social cohesion and equity through education has been a topic yet to be unwrapped.
The research question proposed aims at exploring the ways to re-balance the current educational strategy at the European level in order to foster the need for greater social cohesion. In particular, two areas: a) does the European Union need to promote benchmarks regarding citizenship education?, and b) how to match the functional skills of employability with the more collective, linguistic and inclusive skills at the core of social cohesion? The research question aims at opening the discussion about multilingual schooling; unified curriculum across Europe; and reviewing the international case studies of multinational pupil environment.
