ETUCE Newsletter, April 2008.
The latest issue of the ETUCE newsletter has been published.
The newsletter includes information on the Eurodemo for better pay and better living conditions, the joint EI/ ETUCE conference on Teacher Education in Europe, the ETUCE project on preventing and tackling violence in schools and the ETUCE statement on the review of the Lisbon Strategy.
Important European teachers’ delegation was noticed at the Eurodemo in Ljubljana, 5th April.
European teachers were the biggest
sectoral delegation for the “Eurodemo”
in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 5th April.
More that 750 teachers from 11 countries
joined the ranks of the European Trade
Union Committee for Education (ETUCE),
which federates 114 trade unions and
5,5 millions teachers in the European
Union, to respond to the call by the
European Trade Union Confederation
(ETUC). The ETUC had chosen to
organise the Eurodemo the same day as
the Council of European Ministers of
Finance (ECOFIN), in order to claim decent living conditions for all European workers, in a context of international financial turmoil.
ETUCE Statement on the 2008 review of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs
In advance of the EU summit on 13-14 March, the ETUCE issued a detailed statement in response to the 2008 review of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs. Since the launch of the Lisbon Strategy, the ETUCE has welcomed the central role education and training have been given to achieve the Lisbon objectives, but the ETUCE has also emphasised the importance of recognising that education and training is not merely a tool to foster economic growth and employment. Education plays a pivotal role in that regard, but it also serves broader personal and social functions, vital to social cohesion, equality, active citizenship, cultural diversity and personal fulfilment.
Joint EI/ETUCE Conference on Teacher Education in Europe
On 10-11 March, the EI/ETUCE Conference on Teacher Education will welcome 80 teacher unionists from 33 European countries in Bled, Slovenia. The Conference will feature keynote speeches on the challenges facing teacher education today across Europe, as well as allow participants to engage in in-depth discussions on the comprehensive new draft ETUCE Policy Paper on Teacher Education.
ETUCE preventing and tackling work-related stress
Teachers are undoubtedly among the professions with the highest level of work-related stress. Workload, role overload and increased class size per teacher have been identified as the main stress factors for teachers. The ETUCE survey on teachers’ work-related stress gathers useful information on stressors and stress indicators in teachers’ work in primary, secondary and vocational education sectors, measures the level of teacher unions' awareness of the national implementation of the European Framework Directive 89/391/EEC on health and safety at work in the different countries and assesses the level of awareness and implementation by teachers’ unions of the European Social Partners’ Framework Agreement on work-related stress.
The ETUCE implementation guide on the European Framework Agreement on work-related stress provides an overview of the Framework Agreement, focusing on the main concerns teachers are facing at their work place.
The Council of Europe's online game for children
The Council of Europe has published an online game for teaching children safe and ethical use of the Internet.
ETUCE Circular on Education & Training 2010, February 2008
The latest issue of the ETUCE Circular on Education & Training 2010 has been published.
This edition contains detailed information on the upcoming EU Peer Learning Activities hosted in different Member States, the outcome of the recent meeting of the Council of Education Ministers, as well as an overview of forthcoming Communications on education by the European Commission.
A Euro-Demo for wages and purchasing power -
Ljubljana 5th April
The ETUCE will join the Eurodemo organised by the ETUC in Ljubljana (Slovenia) on 5th April to claim for decent salaries and to support purchasing power for all workers, especially in the public sector. The demonstration will take place on the same day as the summit between the Ministers of Finance of the EU countries –
the ECOFIN group – and the European Central Bank.
New Eurydice study on school autonomy in Europe:
Policies and measures
Eurydice has recently published a comparative analysis on how school autonomy, at primary and lower secondary level, is implemented in 30 countries. The study looks into the processes that have led to the devolution of decision-making power to schools and how schools in turn are held accountable for their responsibilities. It states that school autonomy today in many countries has become an instrument to achieve more freedom to schools and teachers in order to improve the quality of education. When it comes to teaching staff, the study shows that schools in a large number of countries have autonomy with respect to the selection of substituting absent teachers, the duties and responsibilities and the disciplining. In about half of the countries, selecting teachers for the vacant positions in schools is a school responsibility while in the other half it is decided at more central level of powers.
ETUCE Statement on Schools for the 21st Century
ETUCE has submitted its response to the European Commission’s consultation on the challenges facing schools in the 21st Century.
18/12/07
ETUCE Statement on the draft 2008 Progress Report on Education & Training 2010
ETUCE has recently issued a first statement in response to the draft joint Commission and Council report on the progress made in implementing the Education and Training 2010 work programme.
The draft report was published by the Commission in November and is due to be adopted by the Council of Education Ministers in February 2008.
18/12/07
Temporary workers and working time: the ETUC sends urgent message to the EU ministers of employment
The ETUCE stresses its full support to the message sent by the ETUC to the European ministers of employment, in which the ETUC General Secretary John Monks urges the ministers not to give in to the current pressures from the UK against the Temporary Agency Workers Directive. This draft directive aims at bringing the temporary agency workers’ rights into line with permanent workers, which would constitute a positive step forward with regards to the current situation for temporary workers.
In parallel, the ETUCE strongly supports ETUC’s call to the European Ministers of employment not to endorse the Portuguese Presidency’s proposal for a compromise on the revision of the Working Time Directive. This 1993 directive introduced a maximum of 48 hours weekly working time in the EU member states. After several years of discussion about a revision of this Directive, the Finnish Presidency of the EU presented a possible “compromise” in October 2006, which gave individual Member States the possibility to opt-out of this by allowing employers to get around the 48-hours working week either by passing an individual “agreement” with the workers or by prolonging the reference period for the calculation of the average working time. The whole European trade union movement strongly opposed these amendments which were emptying the Working Time Directive of its original purpose.
Today the ETUC calls on the EU ministers of employment not to endorse the Portuguese Presidency’s proposal, which have kept the main line of the 2006 proposal. The ETUCE fully supports the ETUC in pointing out the risk of weakening the social dimension of EU on these two pivotal issues, and in reminding that by weakening the EU labour market regulation, Europe challenges its own social cohesion.
ETUCE Council 2007 :
Focus on Lifelong Learning in the EU
On 27-28 November, ETUCE will hold its annual Council Meeting in Luxembourg. The 2007 ETUCE Council on “Lifelong Learning in the EU” will take stock of the previous work done on lifelong learning, and will provide an opportunity to develop teacher union policies on the direction of the EU education policies beyond 2010. The Council’s workshop sessions will allow for in-depth discussions on the priorities which should shape the EU’s educational agenda in the next decade, through consideration of the main issues on the agenda at present within school education, vocational education and training, and higher education and research.
The Council Meeting will include expert presentations on two key aspects of the lifelong learning agenda: the social aspects of education and training in the EU as well as finance of education in the EU.
The ETUCE Council Meeting will be preceded by the Networks meetings on the 26th November for the ETUCE Development in Education Network and the ETUCE Working Conditions Network, which this year will focus on respectively teacher education and teachers’ work-related stress.
22/11/07
ETUCE Conference on teachers’ work-related stress
Malta, 19-20 November 2007
An ETUCE Conference on teachers’ work-related stress took place in Malta on 19-20 November 2007, as the final event to take place within the framework of the ETUCE project “Improving expertise on teachers’ work-related stress and assisting ETUCE member organisations in implementing the ETUC-UNICE/UEAPME-CEEP autonomous Framework Agreement”.
The project’s final Conference aimed at providing national teacher trade unions with comprehensive guidelines and practical examples for an effective implementation of the social partners Framework Agreement on work-related stress in the education sector. National teacher trade unions were given the opportunity to discuss a draft policy document on the future actions which ETUCE should undertake regarding work-related stress amongst teachers.
20/11/07
ETUCE Statement on Improving the Quality of Teacher Education
Ahead of the meeting in the Council of Education Ministers on 15-16 November, ETUCE issued a detailed statement on the European Commission's recent Communication on Improving the Quality of Teacher Education. In the statement, ETUCE calls on the Council to make ambitious commitments to raise the level of qualifications of teachers and ensure continuous professional development for all teachers throughout their career.
20/11/07
The Special Edition of the ETUCE Newsletter on the Campaign is out !
New EI/ETUCE Campaign Magazine: Teachers for a Social Europe
In the framework of the EI/ETUCE Campaign "Teachers for a Social Europe", a special Campaign Magazine has just been released.
The Magazine, published in English, French, German and Spanish, contain several interviews with trade union representatives taking position on Social Europe and the future of the EU, as well as comprehensive information about the various topics of the Campaign:
- The European Social Model
- The social dimension of the new Treaty
- The social dimension of education in the Education and Training 2010 process
- The European Commissions new Social Policy Agenda (2006-2010)
- EU enlargement and solidarity
ETUCE supports the Bulgarian teachers on strike
On the 24th September 2007, the ETUCE General Secretary Martin Rømer wrote a letter to the Bulgarian Prime Minister to express his full support to the Bulgarian teachers unions in their ongoing struggle with the government for decent wages. Teachers’ salary standards in Bulgaria are the lowest of all EU member states. Moreover, even a substantial increase of salaries would keep the country on the bottom of the EU ladder concerning teachers’ working conditions. In parallel, Martin Rømer denounces the stigmatization and harassment strategy used by the Bulgarian government to break the teachers’ social movement.
Therefore the ETUCE strongly encourages all its member organisations to express their support to their Bulgarian colleagues by sending their own letter to the Bulgarian authorities.
ETUCE Response to the Commission's Consultation on Reconciliation of professional, private and personal life
ETUCE has responded to the European Commission's consultation on Reconciliation of professional, private and personal life. The ETUCE contribution focuses on the issue of the quality and accessibility of early childhood education. The secretariat wishes to thank all its member organisations which contributed to this document.
Consultation on Schools for the 21st Century
The ETUCE has just sent a letter inviting all its member organisations to submit their responses to the Commission's consultation on "Schools for the 21st Century" by 20 September 2007.
ETUCE Circular on Education & Training 2010
The latest issue of the ETUCE Circular on Education & Training 2010 has been published.
This edition includes information on the newly adopted Council Conclusions on EU indicators on education, on the upcoming Peer Learning Activities in the EU 'Clusters' within education, as well as news from recent EU Conferences on the ECVET and the Copenhagen Process.
