Let us give you a piece of our minds!
The OBESSU 2013 General Assembly (Haapsalu, Estonia – 27th – 28th July) introduced a lot of innovative policies developed by school students; policies which aim to improve educational systems and youth well-being in Europe. They were initiated by our Members, tailored in long consultative processes and adopted as official political stands representative to school student unions in Europe. We believe every stakeholder in education should be interested to learn about the positions of school students in educational policies and should therefore get to know the outcomes of the OBESSU 2013 General Assembly. Some of the fragments of the policy-outcomes follow:
Resolution “Education in Crisis”
“OBESSU calls on the European Union to:
- Promote a harmonisation of investment in education and training amongst Member States, to no less than 6% of GNP.
OBESSU calls on national governments in Europe to:
- Ring-fence education spending from further budget cuts and reverse any education budget reductions already made;
- Introduce a comprehensive system of student welfare.”
“Evaluation and Quality Assurance of Education”
“Our recommendations to European Institutions are:
- that European countries should have a comparable grading system, in order to have fair and equal access to higher and further education for all citizens of European countries across Europe…”
“Our main recommendations to National decision makers are:
- that educational systems and schools must have concrete tools for analysing and evaluating themselves in a coherent process. Those tools have to be created in cooperation with students, schools and student organisations…”
“Our recommendations to teachers are:
- to involve School Students in their own evaluation, provide students with methods, tools and space both for self- and peer-evaluation: this would increase democracy within the evaluation process and develop school students’ ability to give and receive constructive feedback and support them in understanding their learning process…”
Policy paper “School Students’ Europe 2019”
“School students are often denied the right to fully influence their daily school life. In school, democracy remains just a theoretical concept learned in class and not practiced in reality. That is why school students must be free to organise themselves in independent assemblies or in school student councils within every school in Europe…”
“The educational purpose of the apprenticeship or traineeship is also forgotten since some companies only see school students as cheap (or free) labour at their disposal. The government must recognise the status of apprentices as school students but also as workers in contact with the labor market by guaranteeing their rights through contracts and the labour code, at national and European level.”
Position paper : “Democratic participation of School Students”
“OBESSU believes the voting age should be lowered to 16 for elections at all levels. Only by giving young people enough information and a space to think critically and independently form a personal opinion, they will be ready to vote at the age of 16 and be fully empowered to be active citizens”
“OBESSU demands – schools and teachers promoting and encouraging the participation in extra-curricular activities that foster the sense of citizenship such as activism in school student organisations, involvement in NGOs and volunteering”
Position paper “The Dual VET System”
“In these systems the labour market has a strong influence on Education as it contributes to define the curricula and identifies the skills set for the learners. (…) OBESSU believes that access to Education should never be at the discretion of a company; on the contrary it must be accessible to everyone without any costs and its impartiality should never be affected by third parties’ interests, therefore it should remain strictly a state responsibility.”
“Additionally, we see a recurring mistake, when believing that the Dual Systems will solve the mismatch between skills school students have after completing secondary education and those required by the labour market. The skills needed in this fast-changing labour market, however, are neither easy to define nor to foresee. Vocational Education programmes should not aim to do so, but rather prepare school students with a lifelong learning approach”
Resolution “OBESSU rejects the closure of the Spanish Youth Council”
“OBESSU
- Stands for independent, representative, non-partisan and youth-led national youth councils as tools for active participation of young people.
- Urges the Spanish government to back down on its proposal to abolish the Spanish Youth Council (CJE).
- Demands the European institutions and national governments to get involved in defending independent National Youth Councils and implementing policies for real youth participation.”
