Education, we have a problem! closed in Strasbourg

The OBESSU campaign “Education, we have problem!” was opened in October 2013 and officially closed on the 10th of May 2014 during the European Youth Event in Strasbourg, France. The campaign tackled social inclusion in education and it aimed at:

• Raising awareness of the issues linked to social inclusion in education and giving them visibility on national and European level;
• Making national school student unions take action on national level;
• Involving experts and partner organisations with specific knowledge and interest in the topics;
• Giving concrete tools and solutions to tackle social exclusion in education.

Within the scope of social inclusion, we decided to have specific monthly focuses on five different topics, and all of these had a character and a question representing them as seen on the poster (below). At the European level, the campaign was recognised and often mentioned by our partners and different European institutions. The official partners of the campaign can be found here.

At a national level, OBESSU’s Member and Candidate Organisations were encouraged to take up the topics of the campaign that were relevant for them. Campaign materials (stickers and posters) and a toolkit on how to use the materials were sent to all the members, and to some national organisations of our European partners as well.

During the closing of the campaign in Strasbourg, the taskforce that had been in charge of the campaign since the first preparatory meeting a year ago, presented the main topics the campaign tackled. After this, Lise Paskeesen, who conducted a case study on hidden costs in education for OBESSU, presented the conclusions drawn from the study. It was not only us talking but we also received many constructive questions and comments from participants.

What now?

Even though the campaign “Education, we have a problem!” is now officially closed, the work around social inclusion in education is not. OBESSU will continue working with the topics in the future, but now with an even stronger voice and with better links to relevant organisations and institutions. The case study report is out as one concrete outcome of the campaign and may be used by our Member and Candidate organisations as well as our partners. OBESSU is still working on finalising guidelines on inclusive education that will also serve as a concrete tool for everyone working with the topic. The guidelines are based on the campaign and are being finalised together with supporters of the campaign, who are also experts on certain topics and target groups.

We hope our members and other institutions and actors in the field of education will be able to use these outcomes in their work. We are aware of how much more work is still ahead of us and we are full of enthusiasm and energy to make sure one day education has no problems.

Since we are closing the campaign, we would like to thank everyone who supported our campaign, everyone who attended the launch of the campaign in Brussels, everyone who contributed in any way and to everyone who got engaged and everyone who is going to work on the topic. Together, we will make education inclusive for all.