Motion for a resolution | Doc. 11514 | 30 January 2008

Setting up a European Center for Balanced Development of Pupils

Signatories: Mr Anatoliy KOROBEYNIKOV, Russian Federation ; Ms Aneliya ATANASOVA, Bulgaria ; Ms Oksana BILOZIR, Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Baroness Gloria HOOPER, United Kingdom ; Mr Raffi HOVANNISIAN, Armenia ; Mr Rafael HUSEYNOV, Azerbaijan, ALDE ; Mr Tiny KOX, Netherlands, UEL ; Mr Miloš MELČÁK, Czech Republic ; Mr Edward O'HARA, United Kingdom ; Mr Azis POLLOZHANI, ''The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia'' ; Mr Valeriy SUDARENKOV, Russian Federation, SOC

Origin - Referred to the Committee on Culture, Science and Education, for information: Reference No. 3424 (see 11th Sitting, 14 April 2008).

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

In Recommendation 1750 (2006), the Parliamentary Assembly stated that it is an essential task of schools to ensure the balanced development of pupils. In the reply adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, on 18 January 2007, at the 984th meeting of the Deputies, the Committee took note, with interest, of this recommendation.

The indicated problems deserve further attention by the Council of Europe. The reply of the Committee of Ministers notes the possibility of carrying out studies on the interdependence of education and health of pupils in co-operation with UNICEF, WHO and other interested international organisations. The findings of these studies could be used for conceiving and introducing health protection techniques into teaching (and into the school environment as a whole) in all European countries.

In this connection we call for the setting-up (under the aegis of the Council of Europe) of a Europe-wide research and promulgation structure, the purpose of which would be to elaborate and propagate the revised pedagogical guidelines, ensuring better efficiency of activities aimed at improving the overall health conditions of European schoolchildren of the 21st century. The European centre for balanced development of pupils (ECBDP) could be set up as such a structure.

The European centre for balanced development of pupils would help to determine priorities in the activities aimed at ensuring the physical, mental and moral wellbeing of pupils. The centre will contribute to consolidation and generalisation of experience gathered by European schoolteachers, and will work out recommendations relating to the monitoring of children’s balanced development at school.

The European centre for balanced development of pupils should be capable of initiating and following a Europe-wide discussion on methods and techniques to promote the health of European schoolchildren, and to ensure the high quality of learning, which is becoming more and more intensive in the context of the information revolution. The outcomes of such a discussion could lay down the basis for devising better national and Europe-wide policies relating to the balanced development of younger generations.