Socrates - Action 6 Observation and  Innovation

Quality of education

Article 149 of CEE Treaty establishes that "Community shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging co-operation between Member States and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their actions while fully respecting the responsibility of Member States for the content of teaching and the organisation of educational systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity".

According to this objective, the Commission has launched different initiatives in order to reinforce co-operation in policies regarding quality of education.

A priority during the first three years of the implementation of action 3.1 of Chapter III of the SOCRATES programme has been the evaluation of quality in school education. In order to strengthen co-operation at European level on the evaluation of quality in school education, and in order to prepare the pilot projects planned, various preparatory activities were undertaken during 1995 – 1997.

These studies and initiatives are of great interest to stakeholders in the field, and information on them is available to the general public.

Other community initiatives on quality in education include:

* Council Recommendation of 24 September 1998 on European cooperation in quality assurance in higher education

* In 1997, the Commission launched a European Pilot Project on the evaluation of quality in school education. The project involved 101 secondary schools in 18 countries taking part in the Socrates programme On the basis of this pilot project, the Commission has prepared a proposal for a « Recommendation on the Evaluation of Quality in School Education» which was presented by Mrs. Reding to the Council on the 26th November 1999.

The information network "Eurydice" is responsible for producing documents and in-depth comparative analyses on themes of interest to education policy. Further information on EURYDICE is also available.