Education for inclusion: a tool for fighting poverty and social exclusion

Key points

The EESC welcomes the decision to devote 2010 to redoubling efforts to eradicate exclusion and poverty and highlights the importance of using education and training as effective tools for achieving these goals.

On the basis of the concept of education for inclusion, the EESC recommends that the EU and the Member States undertake to revise education policies, their content, approaches and structures and the allocation of resources. The reasons to choose inclusive education are:

• educational, because it requires a quality education system accessible to all from early infancy;
• social, because education must help change mentalities, helping to build societies that are free of exclusion, prejudice and discrimination, and
• economic, because it helps to increase competitiveness in the face of new economic challenges and new labour market demands.

Within the EU, discussions on the recognition of outcomes of non-formal education have been ongoing for many years. Although these discussions have not yet culminated in consensual agreements at EU level, non-formal education is gradually being recognised as being of help in accessing the labour market. The EESC considers it useful for the EU to look at this aspect in the light of education for inclusion and consequently recommends:

•  collecting information on the existing institutional and technical provisions and proposing the establishment of indicators for measuring the potential benefits of recognising non formal education;
• reviewing the models for recognising the outcomes of non-formal education to identify the most egalitarian, effective and beneficial, particularly for the socially excluded;
• encouraging the exchange of successful experiences between the Member States;
• engaging social partners, concerned civil society organisations as well as representatives of both formal and non formal education institutions in this process.

The EESC has pointed out in previous opinions that quality public education for all is a tool that promotes equality and social inclusion.

Finally, the EESC recommends that, without losing sight of coherence with the political priorities already defined, the actions to take forward should serve as a driving force for more daring and ambitious commitments in this area, taking in the widest possible range of institutions and social players.

The conference being held by the EESC from 20 to 22 May 2010 in Florence on Education to fight social exclusion is a good example of this vision. It will be based on a cross-cutting approach and will bring together a large number of relevant actors.