Attention! Join us at the first European Education Forum September 18th - 20th, 2003

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday June 02, 2003 01:46 by EEF - European Education Forum info at eef2003 dot org

Another Education is possible, come to Berlin!

September 18 - 20 there will be an European Education Forum in Berlin. During the forum there will be also a demo and other creative actions.

If you want to sign the call below, please send an e-mail to: info@eef2003.org and write in the mail that you want to sign the call of the EEF 2003 and the name of your organisation, and which country you are coming from.

Attention! Join us at the first European Education Forum September 18th - 20th, 2003

The unification of Europe is proceeding steadily. Together, with the new Eastern European members, the union is facing a historical challenge. The educational systems are growing together as well. This is happening mainly in the academic sector, where a unified Europe has already been attained through internationally oriented curricula and students who study abroad.

We welcome this unification of Europe, but not under the current conditions. We want an education that is internationally oriented and which supports individual self-realization, as well as solidarity and welfare of a society. However, the current situation, including incremental social segregation, low-budgeted schools and universities, increasing student fees, de-democratization, profit orientation and destructive competition between state-funded and private educational organizations, is disruptive to the purpose of these goals.

Even though governments, especially those in the EU, hide behind formally correct proceedings and international treaties, it is still evident that students in high-schools and universities, teachers and other workers in the educational system have an increasingly smaller chance to participate in the process of forming their working environment.

The currently existing national, regional, and local structures of our educational system are not only influenced by the above mentioned European dimension, but also by the GATS treaty of the WTO. This treaty will encourage commercialization of public services which include all layers of the educational system from elementary school to adult education.

These developments may have dire consequences: education plays a key role in our society.

It is the central means which enables people, especially in times of rampant globalization, to understand these international processes and have an impact on them. It provides the means a person needs to develop freely and individually.

But these deliberate politics of education turn education into a mere commodity. Thus access to education is increasingly dependent on individual (financial) resources; its purpose and orientation is increasingly dependent on economic interests. The actual function of education is thus abolished.

The criticism of hierarchies and capitalistic economy, which is important for democratic progress, is diminishing. The result will be an education that is mere training for a job and whose contents and orientation will mainly serve the interests of the industry.

In order for the high-school students, university students and teachers in Europe to have a say in these developments, to discuss current politics, and to develop alternatives, we invite everybody to the first European Forum for Education in Berlin, September 18th - 19th. At the same time, the conference of the European ministers of education will take place.

Emulating the social forum movement, whose open character, width of political opinion and diversity in kind and form of argument mobilized 60.000 people to go to Florence; we invite every group, organization, and individual to participate in the program of the European Education Forum (EEF) with their own contribution.

Right after the EEF, on September 20th, we are planning to demonstrate together for a socially just, democratic, and internationally oriented educational system, and against all forms of commercialization, segregation and de-democratization in this sector.

Come to Berlin!
Another education is possible!

Berlin, 15th April 2003

First Signatures:

Alternative Liste Duisburg
AStA FH-Köln
AStA Uni Wuppertal
AStA Uni Düsseldorf
AStA Uni Essen
AStA Uni Münster
AStA Uni Wuppertal
Attac-campus
Attac HSG Potsdam
Attac HSG HU Berlin
Bundesausschuss der Studentinnen und Studenten in der GEW
Education ist not for sale Network
GesamtschülerInnenvertretung Bremen
GEW Wuppertal
Landesausschuss der Studentinnen und Studenten in der GEW-NRW
Landes-SchülerInnen-Vertretung NRW
scudag Network
['solid] - die sozialistische Jugend