OBESSU at the Lifelong Learning Week
From the 2nd to the 11th December, the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL) organised the fourth Lifelong Learning Week at the European Parliament, in Brussels. The aim of the event was to discuss around the topic of lifelong learning and bring visibility on the past year’s activities and achievements of the platform and its members. OBESSU, as a member of the platform, took an active part in the event, bringing the school students’ perspective into discussion and workshops.
The event had the support of the Member of European Parliament (MEP) Julie Ward, who at the welcoming reception gave an inspirational speech addressing the importance of investing in lifelong learning, both as a key to personal development and as a tool to ensure the right to education for all. It was very important for OBESSU to see that MEPs are willing to talk about the needs of accessible and quality education for life, and hopefully to take action in this direction.
On the 10th of December, OBESSU took part in a panel discussion for the launch of the flagship initiative on ‘Inclusive Education. Fighting inequalities in education and training’. OBESSU Board member Giuseppina Tucci presented our campaign “Education we have a problem!” dealing with aspects of social exclusion. In the panel, OBESSU gave also some inputs on the importance of looking at social inclusion from various perspectives and focused on our case study on hidden costs in education, one of the greatest barriers to free access.
Moreover, participants were asked to take an active part in the creation and development of the flagship initiative and MEP Brando Benifei gave full support to the initiative and assured to work closer in the future with civil society organisations.
OBESSU really appreciated the high level discussions and would like to thank EUCIS-LLL for its considerable work of bringing closer stakeholders working on education and the European institutions, in order to build “together the future of learning”, as the title of the week suggested.
Written by OBESSU Board member Giuseppina Tucci
