Ei-iE

The link between radicalism in the Middle East and a value deficit in Europe was at the forefront of remarks made in Vienna by Education International’s General Secretary on the future of the teaching profession.

Is there perhaps a correlation between the thousands of displaced young men and women fleeing Europe to join the Islamic State and the deficient capacity of many of our school systems? The General Secretary of Education International (EI), Fred van Leeuwen, raised this question at a conference of European education unions on the future of the teaching profession in Vienna on 26 and 27 Nov.

Van Leeuwen said that in many countries "quality education and teaching is under pressure by austerity measures, league tables and lopsided curricula,” leading to a growing number of children who are falling through the cracks, and losing the feeling of belonging. Politicians want to see education first of all as a way of promoting economic growth in their countries, but they overlook that our school systems also hold the immense importance of passing along the democratic values on which our cultures and societies are based.

“We may be falling short of educating those values being overloaded with administrative tasks and keeping test scores,” Van Leeuwen said, referring to the rise of right wing extremism throughout Europe region and the spread of xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

While the need for quality education has never been stronger, teachers are being curtailed everywhere, according to the General Secretary. “With some notable exceptions, teachers are increasingly working on limited contracts, their work load is increasing, their professional space is shrinking, their autonomy challenged, their access to professional development limited.” Van Leeuwen went on to emphasise that teachers “earn salaries often below the average wage, and in some countries they even lack the qualifications, skills, support, and learning materials to teach and teach well,” he said, adding that “the current generation of teachers is ageing and alarming numbers of new teachers are leaving the profession within the first years of employment.”

In a call to rally those in attendance, he urged the European governments to start listening to their educators. “Listen to the classroom teacher, the lecturer, at their workplaces, and listen to the representatives of the teaching profession, the education unions, at all levels where education policy is being developed,” he said.

Click here to read the full text of Van Leeuwen’s remarks.