A4-0170/95

Resolution on the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on coordination between the Community and the Member States on education and training schemes in developing countries (COM(94)0399 - C4- 0158/94)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on coordination between the Community and the Member States on education and training schemes in developing countries (COM(94)0399 - C4-0158/94) and the Council resolution of 25 November 1994,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and the opinion of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A4-0170/95),

A. whereas education is a fundamental human right,

B. having regard to the importance of education and training for democratization and for the development of a constitutional state and its institutions,

C. greatly concerned by the severe cutbacks in the social and education budgets in certain developing countries which are facing genuine financial strangulation because of indebtedness and major economic deterioration,

D. having regard to the need for an adequate provision of basic education in the sense of equipping both children and adults with the knowledge and skills they require to maximize the available opportunities in the actual circumstances in which they live and, furthermore, having regard to the value of such basic education in terms of social cohesion and the integration of the individual into society,

E. having regard to the essential role of education and training in providing a basis on which to build development cooperation in other fields such as health, family planning and employment, and in increasing acceptance of efforts in these areas among the population as a whole,

F. having regard to the role which education and training play in combating poverty by promoting productivity and creativity as a key factor in the lasting improvement of living conditions and prosperity,

G. whereas education and training improve opportunities in the employment market with its rapidly changing conditions and demands, and whereas the training of an indigenous pool of qualified and skilled personnel promotes autonomous development,

H. concerned at the large number of students and skilled workers who, having completed a costly training course, leave their country, some because of the lack of adequate employment and income prospects there, who then make their knowledge and abilities available in industrialized countries where financial incentives beyond the means of developing countries are offered, and some because of political, ethnic or religious persecution,

I. concerned by the problems caused by the attitude of some countries to rights of education for all, especially girls and members of minority religious groups,

J. having regard to the growing plight of millions of refugees and displaced peoples (because of wars, crises and poverty) whose education is disrupted and whose situation poses a burden on neighbouring, often equally poor countries whilst wasting their abilities,

K. having regard to the rights of indigenous peoples to have education provided in respect of their cultures, heritages, languages, histories and traditions,

L. having regard to the right of girls and boys to equal opportunities and the positive influence of girls' and women's education and training on their social position as well as on demographic trends, public health, infant mortality and their family's income situation,

M. whereas the provision of basic education and vocational training opportunities for all which are more adapted to the land and outlets in the region might stem the exodus from the land while enhancing the development of rural areas,

N. having regard to the valuable role of NGOs as essential components of strategies for change and innovation in developing countries,

1. Believes that all children, without distinction as to sex or origin, should have access to adequate basic education and, wherever possible, to at least five years of formal education, that endeavours should be continued towards achieving the fullest possible adult literacy, and that successful new approaches should be supported and scaled up, with priority going to making additional efforts to include the education of women, who have hitherto been neglected in this area;

2. Recommends the introduction of compulsory schooling in law, which, without exception, must be mandatory and must contain no loopholes, e.g. the possibility of buying an exemption, in order to fix in the popular consciousness the importance of education for securing the future of children and society as a whole; gives encouragement for promoting schooling with financial incentives such as compensatory benefits or scholarships, as far as is economically feasible, instead of using children as a labour force; urges that the institutional and financial existence of primary education be guaranteed by means of alternative methods of funding which take into account the socio-economic realities of the countries concerned;

3. Considers it necessary, in particular with a view to providing basic education, to provide flexible forms of teaching, e.g. mobile schools and teachers, in order to meet the specific requirements of individual regions and countries with itinerant communities and street children with no permanent accommodation;

4. Points to the need to take appropriate measures to combat child labour which enable children to attend school and at the same time permit parents an income to live on;

5. Calls for observations concerning basic education to include the situation of children in disaster areas, areas of squalor and refugee camps;

6. Calls also for special support to be granted for education for refugees or displaced persons, such teaching to be provided as far as possible in their own language in order to make it easier, where appropriate, for them to return to their country;

7. Notes the possibility of linking primary education to the acquisition of basic knowledge in areas of life such as health, reproductive health care, nutrition, the environment, craft trades and farming; also believes that it is necessary to step up, in line with what is advocated by the Commission, human rights education;

8. Points to the inadequate manual skills of large sections of the population in developing countries, which are the result of inadequate manual activities in childhood, and therefore stresses the importance of appropriate training, e.g. in the form of handicraft lessons as early as in primary school;

9. Calls for specific priority to be given in early years and in basic primary education to providing opportunities for all children to learn as far as possible in their mother tongue as well as the official language(s) of their country, and for local and public authorities to give proper weight to the implications of the policies in this respect and communicate it to the people concerned; deplores the policy pursued by those states which refuse to recognize the basic right of boys and girls of different ethnic origins to education through the medium of their mother tongue, a right which is safeguarded by international organizations and is enshrined in international agreements;

10. Calls for practical initiatives to be presented by developing countries in consultation with their local communities as to how greater priority can be given to publicly funded primary education which does not discriminate against girls or children from disadvantaged groups of people;

11. Notes that planning of the content, objectives and methods of learning, together with decisions on teaching materials, are a matter for the developing countries themselves and must take account of the cultural situation in the country concerned, particularly with regard to the rights of indigenous peoples; realizes the importance of encouraging the ability to think and make an independent judgment and promoting the teaching of civics and an understanding of democracy; stresses the need for the involvement of local communities in decision-taking procedures, for example regarding indigenous language teaching;

12. Stresses the need for more targeted coordination in the planning phase and for longer-term planning in all areas of education and training especially via a process of decentralization of authority and through greater involvement of local communities, and warns of the consequences which cuts on cyclical economic grounds may have on social programmes in this area when budgets are reduced and adjusted;

13. Urges, in view of the shortcomings in both quality and quantity in training and education, that priority be given to capacity building measures within educational systems and to the improvement of educational management at all levels, with greater involvement of local communities, in order that the most efficient use can be made of the available resources so as to maximize the quality of educational provision and the level of school enrolment; in the process, appropriate measures must be taken to ensure that the proportion of girls does not fall below that of boys;

14. Considers it appropriate to give priority to promoting those education and training courses which are best adapted to the natural, economic and social realities of the people of each country, so as to provide the maximum possible benefit to the country's development;

15. Regards as essential the provision of alternative and non-formal educational opportunities for children and adults who are unable to take advantage of formal schooling or who have been obliged to leave the formal school system prematurely;

16. Recognizes the importance of the active involvement of parents, teachers and local community organizations in provision of the best possible education and calls for their future participation;

17. Calls for an inter-generational approach to education which recognizes the trade-offs between investment in adult literacy and childrens' education, particularly the relationship between women's literacy and girls' education;

18. Regards it as a central condition for the improvement of education and training that teachers should receive training and continuing education, be paid a salary which reflects their achievements and attracts those genuinely interested in teaching and motivates them to follow generally accepted high standards of quality;

19. Notes the importance of secondary education and the training of apprentices in technical, skilled and administrative occupations and recommends that standards be worked out for their proper training, social protection and protection at work; stresses the importance of training concepts specific to the country in question;

20. Considers it a priority to create, firstly, appropriate jobs for trained managers and, secondly, training opportunities for adults working in the informal sector, in order to cover the basic needs of the population and prevent the exodus from the land;

21. Calls for support to be given in particular to women wishing to enter employment in local and public administrations and governments or wishing to start up businesses, the imparting of know-how in women's traditional areas of activity such as (small-scale) trading and food production and processing being particularly important in the process;

22. Recommends, in view of the shortage of resources, that planning of requirements with regard to secondary and higher education and professional training be carried out in a realistic manner to reflect the demands of the economy and public administration, but in a manner which reflects the global context and the importance of sustainable social development;

23. Calls for support to be given to regional cooperation between universities and other tertiary-level institutions with a view to obtaining the benefits of the economies of scale that exist at this level and to promoting solidarity among neighbouring peoples; twinning arrangements and exchanges betweeen educational establishments and local initiatives may also serve this purpose;

24. Advocates, wherever possible, the involvement of local institutions and organizations as well as experts and workers in the planning and implementation of projects funded by the Community and the Member States, while women's interests and requirements must be taken into consideration at all stages through involvement on an equal footing; stresses that partnerships should be sought with NGOs where their grassroots expertise can make education programmes more accountable to local community needs and that efforts should be made to scale up NGO innovations and evaluate their outcome;

25. Notes that innovation and reform in the educational sector are long-term aims requiring long-term policies on the part of the authorities and stresses the need for a matching long-term commitment on the part of the Community and the Member States if interventions in this sector are to yield positive results;

26. Notes the importance of ensuring that measures taken by the Community and the Member States in support of education and training result in developments that are sustainable in practical and financial terms by the local administration in the long term;

27. Emphasizes the need to increase the efficiency with which local resources committed to education and training are used and considers that emphasis should be given to the promotion of innovations such as distance learning designed to improve both the quality and the availability of formal education;

28. Calls for more coherency and efficiency as well as the exchange of data and experience, the most rational possible use of human and financial resources, and coordination of policy aimed at improving education and training in developing countries through functional bodies at donors' head office and field levels while account must also be taken of the experience of non-EU countries;

29. Regards the exchange of data and experience and the division of work in the implementation of programmes as a promising starting point, and urges that the international organizations working in this sector, NGOs, the donor countries and the European Parliament, be involved;

30. Recommends that a sizeable percentage of EDF appropriations be given over exclusively to education and training for, inter alia, carrying out or supporting education measures, exchanges and programmes in collaboration with the recipient states and the development NGOs or charitable NGOs on the ground;

31. Recommends that a careful examination be made of the scope for converting debt repayments by certain developing countries into an 'education credit' to permit a fresh economic upsurge which underwrites greater financial security;

32. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.