Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2001 on European cooperation in quality evaluation in school education
Date: 2001-02-12
Institutions: Council of the European Union, European Parliament
Subjects: EU Member State, EU programme, cooperation policy, education policy, educational institution

1.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 60/51

II

(Acts whose publication is not obligatory)

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL

RECOMMENDATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

on European cooperation in quality evaluation in school education

of 12 February 2001

(2001/166/EC)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 149(4) and Article 150(4)
thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee (1),

Having regard to the opinion of
Regions (2),

the Committee of

the

Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article
251 of the Treaty (3),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

There is a need to promote a European dimension in
education as it is an essential objective in building a
people's Europe.

Quality education is one of the principal objectives of
primary and secondary education, including vocational
education, for all Member States in the context of the
learning society.

The quality of school education must be assured at all
levels and in all areas of education, regardless of any
differences in educational objectives, methods and needs,
and regardless of school excellence rankings where they
exist.

The resources devoted to education have increased in all
industrialised countries during the last decades. Educa-
tion is seen not only as a personal enrichment but also
as a contribution towards social cohesion, social inclu-
sion and the solution to problems of employment. Life-

(1) OJ C 168, 16.6.2000, p. 30.
(2) OJ C 317, 6.11.2000, p. 56.
(3) Opinion of

the European Parliament of 6 July 2000 (not yet
published in the Official
Journal), Council Common Position of 9
November 2000 (OJ C 375, 28.12.2000, p. 38) and Decision of the
European Parliament of 16 January 2001 (not yet published in the
Official Journal).

long learning is an important means of controlling one's
future on a professional and personal
level. Quality
education is essential in the light of labour market poli-
cies,
free movement of workers within the
Community and the recognition of diplomas and
teaching qualifications.

the

It is the responsibility of the Member States to ensure,
when they have the possibility, that school syllabuses
take account of developments in society.

Member States should help the educational establish-
ments to meet the educational and social requirements
in the new millennium and to keep pace with the devel-
opments arising from them. Member States should
therefore support
in
order to improve the quality of the services they provide
by helping them to develop new initiatives geared to
ensure the quality of teaching and by helping them to
encourage both the movement of persons between
countries and the transfer of knowledge.

the educational establishments

In the area of labour market policies, the Council adopts
each year a set of employment guidelines building on
quantitative targets and indicators. Guideline 7 of the
employment guidelines for 2000, set out in the Annex
to Decision/2000/228/EC (4), states that Member States
will ‘improve the quality of their school systems in order
to reduce substantially the number of young people who
drop out of the school system early. Particular attention
should also be given to young people with learning
difficulties’.

In guideline 8 of the said guidelines, specific reference is
made to developing computer literacy,
to equipping
schools with computer equipment and to facilitating
student access to the Internet by the end of 2002, which
should have a positive impact on the quality of educa-
tion and prepare young people for the digital age.

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(4) OJ L 72, 21.3.2000, p. 15.

L 60/52

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

1.3.2001

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

The promotion of mobility enshrined as an objective of
the Community in Articles 149 and 150 of the Treaty
should be encouraged by quality education.

European cooperation and transnational exchanges of
experiences will contribute to identifying and dissemi-
nating effective and acceptable methods of evaluating
quality.

Systems designed to ensure quality must remain flexible
and be adaptable to the new situation created by
changes in the structure and objectives of educational
establishments, taking into account the cultural dimen-
sion of education.

Systems to ensure quality vary from one Member State
and one educational establishment to another, given the
diversity in the sizes, structures, financial circumstances,
institutional character and educational approach of
different establishments.

(13) Quality evaluation and school self-evaluation in partic-
ular are tools well suited to the aim of combating the
number of young people who drop out of the school
system early and social exclusion in general.

(14)

(15)

(16)

In order to achieve the objective of quality education, a
whole range of means are available. Quality evaluation is
one of them and is a valuable contribution to securing
and developing the quality of education within general
and vocational schools. The quality evaluation of educa-
tion must seek,
to assess the capacity of
schools to take account of the use of the new informa-
tion technologies which are becoming more widespread.

inter alia,

institutions
The networking at European level of
involved in quality evaluation in school education is of
fundamental importance. Existing networks such as the
European network of policy makers for the evaluation of
education systems set up by the Member States in 1995
can provide invaluable aid to the implementation of this
recommendation.

The Commission conducted a pilot project on quality
evaluation in higher education in 1994 and 1995.
Council Recommendation 98/561/EC of 24 September
1998 on European cooperation in quality assurance in
higher education (1) underlines the importance of the
exchange of information and experiences and coopera-
tion regarding quality assurance between other Member
States.

(17)

in particular Action 6.1.,
The Socrates programme (2),
invites the Commission to promote the exchange of
information and experience on questions of common

(18)

(19)

(20)

(21)

interest. Evaluating quality in school education is one of
the priority themes of the said Action.

The Commission has, since March 1996,
launched
various studies and operational activities to examine the
question of evaluation from different perspectives with
the aim of describing the wide variety and wealth of
approaches and education evaluation methodologies
used at different levels.

The Commission conducted a pilot project during the
academic year 1997/1998 in 101 upper and lower
secondary schools in the countries participating in the
Socrates programme, which raised awareness of quality
issues and helped to improve the quality of education in
those schools. The final report,
June 1999, entitled
‘Evaluation quality in school education, A European pilot
project’ emphasises a range of methodological elements
as important elements for successful self-evaluation.

In its conclusions of 16 December 1997 (3), the Council
stated that evaluation is also an important element for
assuring and, where appropriate,

improving quality.

The Council Presidency declared in its conclusions at the
Extraordinary European Council held in Lisbon on 23
and 24 March 2000 that European education and
training systems must adapt both to the needs of the
information society and to the need to raise levels of
employment and improve its quality.

(22) With a view to the enlargement of the Union, the acces-
sion countries should be involved in European coopera-
tion in the field of quality evaluation.

(23)

It is necessary to take account of the principle of subsi-
diarity and Member States' exclusive responsibilities for
the organisation and structure of
education
systems, so that the particular cultural character and
educational traditions of each State can flourish,

their

I. RECOMMEND THAT MEMBER STATES:

within their specific economic, social and cultural context
the European dimension,
while taking due account of
support the improvement of quality evaluation in school
education, by:

1. supporting and, where appropriate, establishing trans-
parent quality evaluation systems with the following
aims:

(a) to secure quality education, whilst promoting social
inclusion, and equal opportunities for girls and boys,

(b) to safeguard quality of school education as a basis for

lifelong learning,

(1) OJ L 270, 7.10.1998, p. 56.
(2) OJ L 28, 3.2.2000, p. 1.

(3) OJ C 1, 3.1.1998, p. 4.

1.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 60/53

(c) to encourage school self-evaluation as a method of
creating learning and improving schools, within a
balanced framework of school self-evaluation and
any external evaluations,

(d) to use techniques aimed at improving quality as a
means of adapting more successfully to the require-
ments of a world in rapid and constant change,

(e) to clarify the purpose and the conditions for school
self-evaluation, and to ensure that the approach to
self-evaluation is consistent with other forms of regu-
lation,

(f) to develop external evaluation in order to provide
for school self-evaluation
methodological support
and to provide an outside view of the school encour-
aging a process of continuous improvement and
taking care that
restricted to purely
administrative checks;

this is not

2. encouraging and supporting, where appropriate,

the
involvement of school stakeholders, including teachers,
pupils, management, parents and experts, in the process
of external and self-evaluation in schools in order to
promote shared responsibility for the improvement of
schools;

3. supporting training in the management and the use of
self-evaluation instruments with the following aims:

(a) to make school self-evaluation function effectively as
an instrument strengthening the capacity of schools
to improve,

(b) to ensure an efficient dissemination of examples of
good practice and new instruments within self-evalu-
ation;

4. supporting the capacity of schools to learn from one
another nationally and on a European scale, with the
following aims:

(a) to identify and to disseminate good practice and
efficient tools such as indicators and benchmarks in
the field of quality evaluation in school education,

(b) to form networks between schools, at all appropriate
levels, to support each other and provide outside
impetus to the evaluation process;

5. encouraging cooperation between all

the authorities
involved in quality evaluation in school education and
promoting their European networking.

This cooperation could cover some of
areas:

the following

(a) the exchange of

information and experience,

in
particular on methodological developments
and
examples of good practice, especially by using
modern information and communication technolo-
gies, and, when appropriate, by organising European
conferences, seminars and workshops,

(b) the collection of data and the development of tools
such as indicators and benchmarks of particular rele-
vance for quality evaluation in schools,

(c) publication of results of school evaluation in accord-
ance with the relevant policies of each Member State
and its educational establishments, to be made avail-
able to authorities in the Member States,

(d) promoting contacts between experts in order to build

European expertise in the area,

(e) making use of the results of international surveys for
the development of quality evaluation in schools.

II. INVITE THE COMMISSION:

1. to encourage,

and on the basis of

in close cooperation with the Member
States,
existing Community
programmes, the cooperation referred to in points 4 and
5 of Section I, also involving relevant organisations and
associations with the necessary experience in this field.

In doing this, the Commission should ensure that full
the Eurydice
benefit
is drawn from the expertise of
network referred to in Action 6.1. of
the Socrates
programme;

2. to establish, on the basis of the existing Community
programmes, a database for the dissemination of effective
tools and instruments of school quality evaluation. The
database should also contain examples of good practice
and be accessible on the Internet; interactive use thereof
should be ensured;

3. to make use of the resources within existing Community
to incorporate the experience already
programmes,
gained into these programmes and to develop the
existing networks;

4. to make, as a first step, an inventory of the instruments
and strategies for quality evaluation in primary and
secondary education already in use in the various
Member States. When the inventory has been compiled,
the Commission will work with the Member States on
appropriate follow-up. The European Parliament,
the
Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the Regions should be fully informed on a
regular basis of the follow-up;

5. to present on the basis of contributions from the
Member States triennial detailed reports to the European
Parliament,
the Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions in relation
to the implementation of this Recommendation;

the Council,

6. to draw conclusions and make proposals on the basis of

these reports.

Done at Brussels, 12 February 2001.

For the European Parliament

For the Council

The President

N. FONTAINE

The President

T. ÖSTROS