Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-15-Speech-1-078"
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"en.20010115.7.1-078"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I said by way of introduction, back in the debate held on 5 July on “quality evaluation in school education” that the foundations for the future of young people are laid in classrooms, but not just in classrooms.
There are no two ways about it, education, i.e. training and further education, must take centre stage in all policy areas. Education is not an end in itself but is the key to our being able to hold our own in the modern age, not just in economic terms but also at a personal level. The transition to the knowledge-based society, the globalisation of the economy, social, democratic and environmental change, together with far-reaching changes in the world of work, due not least to the new technologies: these are the big challenges we face in the third millennium, and they also require renewed efforts in the educational field.
So again, I welcome the fact that this report has come before the House, because its aim is both to improve school education and the quality evaluation thereof.
Quality comparisons – be they internal or external – generate competition, and if the quality of education in European schools is enhanced as a result, and the three-fold challenge posed by the information society, globalisation and rapid scientific and technological change is taken into account, then this report will have achieved its goal of giving renewed impetus to efforts in the field of education, and a major step forward will have been taken at European level. So let us help to ensure that the report on implementation, which the Commission is to put before Parliament in three years’ time, proves successful.
Permit me though, on a final note, to say something that is fundamental to the future of education, since I have just come from an educational symposium, the Federal Conference of the Austrian People’s Party. There is more to education than equipping people for employment. Its goal must be the all-round development of young people as individuals. This entails imparting fundamental knowledge, skills and competences, communicating values, and educating people in music, creative subjects, health and sport.
Secondly, a sound knowledge base, which imparts important material and leaves out what is unimportant, still forms the basis for education in the twenty-first century. So it falls short of the mark to say that knowledge and information ought only to be obtained from the Internet. Those who do not have basic knowledge do not know where to acquire knowledge either. The cultural techniques of reading, calculating and writing form part of this knowledge base. The new technologies offer new opportunities to acquire knowledge and employ our cultural techniques. Only those who have a knowledge base know how to handle knowledge properly, and how to distinguish and differentiate, in an age that has seen an explosion in knowledge. That is why I feel this report makes a significant contribution to placing the acquisition of knowledge at the heart of our policy areas."@en1
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