Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 5, 9th floor - 1210 Brussels - Belgium - Tel. +32 2 224 06 91 - Fax. +32 2 224 06 94 - E-mail: secretariat@csee-etuce.org
Background for the campaign
Ever since the Lisbon European Council in 2000, where all the Member States decided to make the EU the most “competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” by 2010, ETUCE has considered it one of our highest priorities to improve the quality of the teaching profession, to recruit and retain qualified teachers and to ensure a continuous professional development for teachers.
However, this cannot be achieved without the active contribution of teachers and their organisations. As a result, it was decided to launch the Europe Needs Teachers campaign in 2004/2005.
Purpose of the campaign
ETUCE wishes to initiate a debate in all Member States concerning the quality of the teaching profession and whether there is a shortage or a sufficient amount of teachers in their country. Therefore, it is imperative that all of our member organisations are aware of the current status in each Member State and this campaign should make the Member States accountable for their responsibilities.
As a result, ETUCE has taken the initiative to several hearings and a Conference which took place in June 2006.
It is our sincere hope that this campaign will highlight the possition of the teaching profession and ETUCE hope to obtain a broader focus at the matter from our Member Organisations. This focus should initiate actions both on European and national level in order to recognise the importance of teachers and to assure a continual development of the teaching profession and its quality assurance.
January 2005 - Successful hearing “Europe needs Teachers” opened by Commissioner Jan Figel’
The ETUCE Campaign “Europe Needs Teachers” held a very interesting and relevant hearing in Brussels on 17 January 2005 with participants from member organisations, the Commission, The European Parliament, the press and social partners. Jan Figel’, Commissioner for Education, opened the hearing and stresed that qualified and motivated teachers are a must for the knowledge based society. The Expert Panel, e.g. represented by Arlette Delhaxhe, Eurydice, and Paulo Santiago, OECD, brought teacher education and the growing need for qualified teachers into focus which was followed by an exciting debate in the afternoon.
June 2006 - ETUCE Conference: Europe Needs Teachers!
On 12 June, ETUCE welcomed teachers’ unions representatives from throughout Europe to a conference on teacher education in Brussels. Organised in the context of the ETUCE Campaign on Europe Needs Teachers, the conference took stock of international developments within policies on the teaching profession.
Mr. Michael Davidson from the OECD initiated the debate in a presentation on “The Teacher Profile for the Future”, outlining factors shaping the changing role of the teaching profession in today’s society and giving as well an update on the OECD’s forthcoming survey on Teachers, Teaching and Learning. The first results of the ETUCE survey on Trends in Teacher Education were presented by Mr. Jørgen Thorslund, Director of Research & Development, Centre for Higher Education, Greater Copenhagen, Denmark, who is in charge of conducting the survey among ETUCE affiliates. A new study by Eurydice on “Quality Assurance in Teacher Education in Europe” were presented by the Eurydice researchers, comparing the formal regulations in place in EU countries in relation to quality assurance of institutions educating teachers.
Professor of Education and former coordinator of the European Network on Teacher Education, Mr. Daniel Kallos from Sweden spoke of his views on Teacher Education in the Future. Mr. Kallos advocated for closer links between the subjects taught at school and the research done within the academic disciplines, and argued that the current division of labour within the teaching profession, with separate categories of teachers teaching at different levels of the education sector, is outdated.
In the last session of the day, a panel composed of Ms. Haldis Holst, Union of Education, Norway, Mr. David Eaglesham, SSTA, Scotland, and Mr. Patrick Gonthier, UNSA-Education, France, gave their views on the major challenges for teacher education in their country.
