8th European School Student Convention “Education at 360°”

From 8^th to 14^th December OBESSU gathered its member and observer organisations for the annual Council of Members (COMEM) and the 8^th European School Student Convention.

The Council of Members adopted a new system for the Annual Financial Contribution, discussed the issue of lowering the voting age to 16 giving the mandate to the Board to work on a policy paper on democratic participation of school students, and update the work plan for 2014 with an event on the effect of the crisis on education. All the documents adopted and the minutes of the COMEM will be available on the OBESSU website in January.

The 8^th European School Student Convention entitled “Education at 360º” dealt with the topic of evaluation and quality assurance of education. Particular focus was dedicated to the evaluation of school students, its methods and shortcomings. The issues of evaluation of teachers and of education systems, including third parties evaluation, were discussed as well. We had the pleasure also to discuss with the Mr Paulo Santiago from the OECD concerning the findings of their project “Evaluation and Assessment Frameworks for Improving School Outcomes”. The outcome of the Convention is a set of guidelines which will be discussed at the General Assembly in Estonia next summer.