European Commissioners Gabriel and Navracsics encourage EU Education Ministers to involve all schools in EU Code Week 2018

Publication date: May 28, 2018

Today the European Commissioners Mariya Gabriel, responsible for the Digital Economy and Society, and Tibor Navracsics, responsible for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, have encouraged the Education Ministers in the EU Member States to involve all primary and secondary schools in EU Code Week which will take place 6-21
October 2018. You can read the letter below.

 

 

Dear Minister,

As you know, the digital transformation is bringing important economic and social benefits to our society, but also major challenges. All citizens in Europe will need to develop the right skills to thrive in a world which is increasingly digital. To achieve this we need to work together to ensure that European education and training systems respond and adapt to these changes. The European Council conclusions of 14 December 2017 called on Member States, the Council and the Commission to take forward the agenda discussed at the Gothenburg Social Summit. In  January 2018, the Commission adopted the Digital Education Action Plan which sets out 11 specific actions supporting the better use of digital technologies in education; the development of digital skills and competences; and the better use of foresight and data in education.

Amongst others, the Digital Education Action Plan pledges to make young people active digital creators and leaders and encourages participation in EU Code Week. Our target is that at least 50% of all primary and secondary schools, including vocational and education training schools, participate in EU Code Week by 2020. EU Code Week is a grass-root movement run by volunteers who promote programming, computational thinking and related activities in their countries as Code Week Ambassadors. In 2017, 1.2 million people participated in Code Week, out of which an impressive 46% were girls or women.

The Commission is supporting schools participation in this initiative in a number of ways including with free materials for teachers in all European languages on the Code Week website and offering an auto-evaluation tool – Selfie – which indicates the digital readiness of schools.

In full respect of your competences and the principle of subsidiarity, we intensify efforts to adapt education systems for the digital age and to support digital training for teachers and school leaders. We also invite you to encourage all primary and secondary schools in your country to get involved in EU Code Week, which will take place from 6-21 October 2018. For more information please contact your local Code Week ambassador(s) or the colleagues at the Commission working with Code Week (see attached contacts).

We further encourage you to share your learning materials related to computational thinking and coding at CodeWeek.eu and to share your experiences with introducing digital skills in schools at the forthcoming Educational Council meeting.

Thank you in advance for your efforts to help ensure that all children will have the necessary skills to live and work positively and successfully in our increasingly digital European society.

 

Yours sincerely,

Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society and Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport


The Ministers who have been contacted are:

Austria      

Prof. Dr. Heinz FAßMANN, Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research

Belgium         

Hilde CREVITS, Vice Minister-President of the Flemish government and Flemish minister for education

Belgium          

Marie-Martine SCHYNS, Ministre de l’Education

Belgium
Harald MOLLER, 
Minister of Education and Scientific Research, Government of the German-speaking

Bulgaria          

Krasimir VALCHEV, Minister of Education and Science

Cyprus
Prof. Costas KADIS,
Minister of Education and Culture

Czech Republic          

Mr Robert PLAGA, Karmelitská 5 -7

Germany        

Anja Karliczek, Federal Minister for Education and Research

Danemark      

Merete RIISAGER, Minister for Education

Estonia            

Mailis REPS, Ministry of Education and Research

Spain            

Iñigo MÉNDEZ DE VIGO, Minister of Education, Culture, & Sport

Finland            

Sanni GRAHN-LAASONEN, Minister of Education and Science

France            

Jean-Michel BLANQUER, Ministère de l’Education Nationale

Greece            

Konstantinos GAVROGLOU, Minister of Education, Research & Religious Affairs

HR                  

Blaženka DIVJAK, Minister of Science and Education

Hungary          

Mihály VARGA, Minister for National Economy

Ireland            

Mr Richard BRUTON TD, Minister for Education and Skills

Italy                

Valeria FEDELI,  Ministro dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca

Lithuania          

Jurgita PETRAUSKIENĖ, Minister of Education and Science

Luxemburg      

Claude MEISCH, Ministre de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enfance et de la Jeunesse Ministre de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche

Latvia              

Kārlis ŠADURSKIS, Minister for Education and Science

Malta              

Evarist BARTOLO, Minister for Education and Employment

The Netherlands          

Ingrid VAN ENGELSHOVEN, Minister of Education, Culture and Science

The Netherlands          

Arie SLOB, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education and Media

Poland            

Anna ZALEWSKA, Ministry of National Education

Portugal          

Dr. Tiago BRANDÃO RODRIGUES,  Minister for Education

Romania          

Prof. Dr. Valentin POPA, Minister of National Education

Sweden            

Gustav FRIDOLIN, Minister for Education

Sweden            

Anna EKSTRÖM, Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training

Slovenia                      

Maja MAKOVEC BRENČIČ, Minister for Education, Science, Youth and Sport Ministry of Education, Science and Sport

Slovak Republic          

Martina LUBYOVÁ, Minister for Education, Science, Research and Sport

United Kingdom          

Nick GIBB, Minister of State for Schools

                       

For further information, please check the European Commission news item.