School education is only possible thanks to teachers. They help children develop essential skills for their future working life and become active and responsible citizens. However, most EU countries struggle to engage young teachers and to keep experienced teachers in the job, which increases the need to reinforce the attractiveness of teacher careers.

We’ve been very chatty in recent years; various platforms have enabled many different opinions and points of view to be shared. The same goes for education. After observing the aftermath of the pandemic and the changing educational landscape, it was clear that we needed to do things differently. But we quickly returned to our familiar practices and from there, we were catapulted again; the infamous ChatGPT tool was introduced. And everything changed. Again.

Education can play a vital role in enabling young people to understand and acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes to address the global challenges that they will increasingly face during their lives. Education for sustainability tackles issues such as climate change, sustainable transportation, cultural preservation and features increasingly in national and EU level education policies and actions.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures young people’s competences in basic skills: mathematics, reading and science. The 2022 study involved 690 000 students, representing 29 million 15-year-olds across 81 education systems; all EU countries except Luxembourg participated, and its results were published in December 2023.

Teachers play a vital role in shaping our societies. Despite this, the profession is seemingly becoming less attractive since more than half of European Union Member States have raised concerns about teacher shortages.

Engaging young minds in meaningful citizenship activities poses a formidable challenge – one that cannot be adequately addressed by rhetoric or the occasional ‘Go vote’ poster.

The European Education Area ‘Working Group on Schools’ has focused on assessment policies and practices to support successful and inclusive education. In this interview we hear about the outcomes.

On entering any school, you can observe its physical environment, written norms, relationship culture, school atmosphere, values and even its unwritten rules. This is the school climate that determines how we perceive and experience a school.

Pupil success is more than just academic achievement. A holistic approach to education includes nurturing the mental and physical health of pupils, and research indicates that this greatly influences their overall development and educational outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a number of key lessons related to education: the importance of access to reliable internet connectivity and devices, the need to support teachers to cope with disruptions, exploding workloads and learners experiencing emotional distress or dropping out, and the need to support learners’ well-being. While these issues are true for education everywhere, they are even more relevant in rural and remote areas.