Rethinking education

Key points

• The current economic and social crisis is imposing constraints on the budgetary decisions of the EU and of European countries. The EESC warns of the potential danger of the cuts being applied to education budgets.
• Aware that there are significant shortcomings in education systems, the EESC puts forward the following recommendations:
• implement the measures now being proposed, incorporating them into other initiatives aimed at integrating young people into the labour market;
• encourage the incorporation of the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills into education policies and programmes;
• recognise and value non-formal learning;
• adopt common rules and principles for defining systems that will guarantee the recognition and validation of non-formal learning;
• invest in training and hiring good teachers, improving their academic and professional training, and striving to ensure gender balance in teacher recruitment;
• view education and training budgets as investments in the future;
• involve all stakeholders in framing and monitoring educational policies.