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Call for the second European Education Forum20th – 22nd May 2005 at Bergen, NorwayThe organization committee for the second EEF/FEE hereby calls upon groups, organizations and individuals to join the European Education Forum, 20th -22nd May 2005 in Bergen, Norway which will take place at the same time as the conference of the European ministers of education. The objective is - by participating at debates or offering workshops - to advance discussions relating to the current European education policies and to develop individual and general alternatives. The European Education Forum is an independent forum organized in reference to the social forum movement with its open character, its width of political opinion and its diversity in kind and forms of argument. Berlin 2003Around 100 European student, pupil, and teacher-organizations and networks came together to hold the first European Education Forum in Berlin in September 2003. The forum countered a top-level education meeting of 33 European ministers in Berlin welcoming the progress of the Bologna-process concerning higher education. The “Bologna-process” in Europe…The main purpose was the creation of a European Higher Education Area, to which they committed in Lisbon in 2000 and Barcelona in 2002. This aims at making Europe “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”. This process has emerged and accelerated ever since. After Higher Education and Further Education, it is now the educational system of more than 40 European countries, which finds itself involved in a race for the strengthening of the competitiveness and commercialization of education. … changes and commercializes educationA free, critical and emancipatory education is a basic resource for our society. But by following the WTO-declarations, the political leaders of the European governments are willing to turn it into a tool for the economy and accommodate it to the conditions of market principles. The world-wide standards, prescribed by GATS, are instruments for the planned commercialization of the European education sector. From kindergarten to university, principles of competition and economic efficiency are increasingly affecting every field: labor regulation, pedagogical strategies, institutional organization, budgets to name a few. A forum to discuss about the European education policiesIn view of these developments, what can we, students, pupils, teachers, parents and other stakeholders do in order to counter this development? What can we do in order to be actively engaged in the decision making process of policies that affect us directly? Can we accept the progressing disengagement of the democratic process and in consequence the disengagement of the responsibility of the people of Europe? Which place will we have, what training access guarantees will we have for schools and universities transformed into competitive economic actors and which are submissive to corporate interests? What will happen with the universal and fundamental right of education in a system which is solely preoccupied with short employer-employee relationships at the service of profit-making? … because another education is possibleNeither the defense of the status quo which maintains the reproduction of social inequalities, nor the big market of the “European Higher Education Area” imposed by the demands of a new economic world order are desirable. We believe that another education is possible with free access to knowledge and greater self-determination. Therefore, we suggest putting forward the needs of our societies and the demands of students and other involved. We are for an independent and critical education that allows individuals to emancipate him-or herself from social, economic and political constraints and obstacles. These values are indispensable in a democratic society. Come and join us in Bergen in May 2005!In order to make it possible for high-school students, university students and teachers, parents and citizens in Europe to have a say in these developments, to discuss current politics and to develop alternatives, we invite everybody to the second European Education Forum in Bergen. Signatures:
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