ETUCE conference: Preventing Early School Leaving through ICT
On 28-29 November 2013, the final conference of the ETUCE project Teacher Unions Preventing Early School Leaving through the Use of ICT in Education took place in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The conference gathered together teacher union representatives, representatives from the employers' federation (EFEE) and from the students' association (OBESSU), researchers, and teachers. In order to learn from the experiences made in different national contexts, school teachers and leaders were invited to present their daily experiences in making use of ICT in their institution to attract pupils back to school.
The main objective of the conference was to discuss practical guidelines on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education in support of the prevention of early school leaving. These practical guidelines aim to give advice to teacher unions, education institutions, policy makers and other stakeholders in education. They build up on the findings of the four project case studies in upper secondary schools and teacher education institutions in Portugal, The Netherlands, Denmark and Azerbaijan, as well as on the outcome of a project workshop conducted in September 2013.
Eleonora Waltraud Schmid from the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) presented the latest findings which show that the challenges connected to early school leaving lay both inside and outside the education system. With regard to using ICT strategies to attract risk groups back to school, most EU countries are still in an experimental stage. Guus Wijngaards, ETUCE representative in the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) Working Group on ICT, emphasised the need to discuss the use of ICT at school level and to take teachers’, students’, and parents’ perspectives into account when promoting the use of ICT in education.
The conference was the final activity of an on-going ETUCE project, which connects to one of the five head targets of the European Union’s ten-year growth strategy EU 2020. The EU 2020 strategy has set the target to reduce the school drop-out rate below 10% and to raise by 40% the rate of 30-34 year olds completing third level education.
To follow up on the project outcome, please visit:
http://www.elfe-eu.net/
