EESC opinion: Unleashing the potential of children and young people with high intellectual abilities in the European Union

Key points

• The EESC recommends that the European Commission and the Member States support further studies and research that would tap the potential of gifted children and young people in a wide variety of fields, aiming to facilitate employment and employability within the framework of the EU and, in a context of economic crisis, enhance specialist knowledge and prevent brain drain;

• The Committee recommends that, in the future, greater consideration be given to each Member State's existing models for and experience in working with highly gifted children, particularly those which benefit all of society, facilitate cohesion, reduce school failure and encourage better education in accordance with the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy;

• The Committee proposes improving educational care for children and young people with high abilities, in terms of the following aspects:

• initial and ongoing training of teaching staff regarding the typical characteristics of highly able students, as well as the detection and educational care they need;
• pooling of procedures for the early detection of high intellectual abilities among students in general and in particular among those from disadvantaged social backgrounds;
• designing and implementing educational measures aimed at students with high intellectual abilities;
• incorporating into teacher training the encouragement of entrepreneurship and the educational use of ICT, which are also basic instruments in the educational response to gifted students.