WRITTEN QUESTION E-0571/99

by José Barros Moura (PSE) to the Commission

(12 March 1999)

Subject: 1998 annual report by the representation of the Board of Governors of the European schools

I was surprised to find that the above report does not contain statistics indicating:

- the number of pupils (broken down by nationality);

- the number of teachers and teaching assistants (broken down by nationality);

- the number of pupils belonging to families of officials, other staff or members of EU institutions and the number of pupils with no family like with the EC/EU (broken down by nationality).

Would the Commission provide such information, broken down by school? Would it also provide information on the functional relations between the structures of the European schools and the Member States' Education Ministries, and on further study undertaken by the pupils of those schools?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(12 April 1999)

Four tables have been sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat. They show the breakdown by nationality of pupils enrolled, the breakdown by nationality of teachers seconded from Member States, the total number of teaching hours (equivalent to 83 primary and 129 secondary full-time teaching posts for seconded staff posts), and the breakdown in 1998-1999 between pupils belonging to families of Community staff and pupils belonging to families with no Community ties, in the nine European Schools.

The European Schools are an education system common to all Member States. They are overseen by a Board of Governors, an intergovernmental body composed of the Ministers responsible for national education or external cultural relations. The Commission joined the Board following an agreement concluded on 11 December 1957 between the Board and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

Member States' representatives sit on the Administrative and Financial Committee and on the primary and secondary Teaching Committees, intergovernmental bodies responsible for preparing the decisions of the Board of Governors. There are two Boards of Inspectors (one for primary and one for secondary education) composed of inspectors from the Member States. They monitor the education provided in the Schools, organising courses of study, establishing syllabuses, checking teaching standards and supervising teachers seconded from the Member States. Every year they are responsible for holding the baccalaureate examination and ensuring consistent marking of the test papers.

The Member States' Ministers of Education second teachers to the Schools and continue to pay their national salaries.

It is difficult to follow up former pupils of the European Schools since the baccalaureate gives them entry to any university in the Community. As the Schools have 11 language sections, pupils are very widely dispersed after the baccalaureate. Some non-member countries (in particular several universities in the United States) recognise the European Baccalaureate. This further accentuates the dispersal of former pupils.

The European Schools have been requested by the representative of the Board of Governors to attempt such a follow-up. Statistics will be available in the near future.