At the invitation of the Spanish Presidency and Mr Jeronimo Saavedra, Minister of Education and Science, Mrs Edith Cresson, Member of the Commission responsible for research, education and training, will tomorrow, Tuesday, 4 July, address the conference in Madrid to launch SOCRATES, the Community's action programme in the field of education. The event will be attended by 200 celebrities from the school and university world, including the Secretary General of the Universities Council, Mr Francisco Federico Michavila, and the Secretary General of the Organisation of Hispano-American States for Education, Science and Culture, Mr Jose Torreblanca, who is also the director of the SOCRATES agency in Spain.
The addresses by Mrs Cresson and Mr Saavedra will be followed by three round tables, each given over to one of the aspects of the programme:
* the COMENIUS action, targeted at schools
* the ERASMUS action, covering higher education
* and lastly the so-called transversal measures which are intended to boost the teaching of languages, open and distance learning, and exchanges of information and experience in the European Union.
Just like the G-7 Summit in Halifax, the European Council in Cannes also stressed the increasing role to be played by vocational education and training policies in the fight against unemployment and exclusion and in rising to the challenge of competitiveness in Europe. The importance of life-long learning - the theme of the 1996 European Year - was also confirmed on this occasion.
SOCRATES, an innovatory programme
As well as building on the achievements of programmes such as ERASMUS, so familiar to European students (300 000 of whom have already benefited from it) or LINGUA, the SOCRATES programme also breaks new ground. The COMENIUS chapter, for instance, will urge European schools to set up partnerships and work on joint initiatives: definition of education projects having a European dimension, learning the languages of the European Union, teacher exchanges, exchanges of experience and teaching material. The programme will also enable teachers to refresh and update their skills through training periods, acquaintance with new methods, etc. Another new aspect of the programme is the emphasis placed on adult education.
SOCRATES will also provide a strong boost to projects which use new information technologies and, as part of its ERASMUS university action, will focus on teacher mobility, encourage the development of European teaching modules and particularly "master's" courses in very specialised fields. Lastly, the programme will extend the ECTS system which enables students having undertaken a period of study in another Member State to have this period accredited by their university of origin.
The SOCRATES programme was adopted on 15 March 1995 by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament and has a budget of 850 million ecus for the period 1995-98.