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.
