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Recommendation 1884 (2009)
Cultural education: the promotion of culture, creativity and intercultural understanding through education
1. The Parliamentary
Assembly reaffirms the fundamental importance of education for every
individual and society as a whole and recalls that, under Article
26, paragraph 2, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of
10 December 1948, education shall be directed to the full development
of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms and shall promote understanding, tolerance
and friendship among nations and ethnic or religious groups. All
forms of artistic expression are recognised as tools for intercultural
education by the Council of Europe’s White Paper on Intercultural
Dialogue of 7 May 2008.
2. The right to education is a fundamental human right guaranteed
under Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention
on Human Rights (ETS No. 9). Education should be used as the driving
force for new social and economic structures in today’s world of
rapid change, increasing globalisation and complex economic, societal
and cultural relations.
3. Cultural education, which is learning and practising the arts,
as well as learning through the arts using transversal pedagogical
means, should also be understood as using the arts for the promotion
of cultural and social objectives, in particular mutual respect,
understanding and tolerance vis-à-vis others, appreciation of diversity,
team work and other social skills, as well as creativity, personal
development and the ability to innovate. Cultural education can
help to create synergies beyond cultural diversity through positive
and constructive dialogue. The promotion of creativity and the ability
to innovate are indispensable for the development of a person’s
character and for meeting daily challenges. Self-expression through,
and experience of, the arts develop basic co-ordination and core
skills that assist a child’s ability to learn from the earliest
years.
4. The Assembly recalls the UNESCO Road Map for Arts Education
adopted by the World Conference on Arts Education: Building Creative
Capacities for the 21st Century (Lisbon, 6-9 March 2006) and welcomes
the European Union initiative “European year of creativity and innovation”
in 2009. It regrets the absence of a Europe-wide programme to assess
adequately cultural education and social competencies acquired at
school.
5. The Assembly has widely supported education policies related
to culture, such as through its Recommendation 1833 (2008) on promoting the teaching of European literature, Recommendation 1717 (2005) on education for leisure activities, Recommendation 1621 (2003) on the promotion of art history in Europe, Recommendation 1437 (2000) on non-formal education, Recommendation 1104 (1989) on dance, and Recommendation
929 (1981) on music education for all.
6. Education typically takes place in schools and institutions
of higher education, as well as in an informal way through media,
cultural institutions and art. Art can usefully reinforce formal
education. Cultural and artistic means of education should become
an essential part of formal education, in particular at school level.
New information and communication technologies have strongly increased
the possibilities for, and the impact of, cultural education, both
in formal and informal education.
7. Successful education implies logical and abstract thinking,
imagination and sensibility, creativity as well as cultural memory,
with communication skills being the necessary starting point. Communication
requires cognitive and social competencies, as well as literacy
in a broad sense, comprising not only speaking, reading and writing
literacy, but also numerical, cultural and artistic literacy.
8. Artistic communication could assist in particular persons
experiencing difficulties in speaking, reading or writing, irrespective
of whether these are a result of physical, mental or educational
problems. In order to fully exercise their right to education, persons
with special needs should have access to more intensive and holistic education,
including in particular cultural education.
9. Literacy is a fundamental requisite for the participation
in and active contribution to democratic society. Although illiteracy
in terms of reading and writing in Europe is below the estimated
worldwide level of 10% to 20%, a proportion of Europeans with a
migratory background is functionally illiterate in the language
of their country or region of residence. This cultural illiteracy
hinders participation in social life and the mutual understanding
between different social groups.
10. The Assembly reaffirms that member states must guarantee the
freedom and diversity of artistic and cultural expression under
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Educational
and cultural institutions, representing the wide range of artistic
and cultural practice, should set up joint projects in order to ensure
an active and vivid approach to diverse cultural expressions.
11. Educational institutions should set up international co-operation
projects in cultural education, in particular in regions with political
tensions. Member states should support educational institutions
in such co-operation by raising awareness, providing funding, facilitating
travel visas where necessary, ensuring mutual recognition of cultural
courses, and granting educational institutions the administrative
powers to conclude transfrontier co-operation agreements. They should
ensure that every person can meet his or her educational needs by
ensuring the availability of adequately trained teachers, as well
as access to culture and the arts.
12. The Assembly welcomes the organisation of a meeting with the
Governing Board of the Programme for International Student Assessment
(PISA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA) in order to explore the pedagogical and ideological
grounds of their work and examine the possibility of expanding the scope
of their assessment to include civic awareness, creative skills
and cultural education.
13. The Assembly asks the Secretary General of the Council of
Europe to assist member states, educational institutions, cultural
institutions and teachers in developing and maintaining cultural
education projects and to share information on best practices, for
instance through the European Centre for Global Interdependence
and Solidarity (North-South Centre) in Lisbon, the European Wergeland
Centre in Oslo and the European Centre for Modern Languages in Graz.
14. The Assembly invites the ministers for education, culture
and the media in Council of Europe member and observer states to:
14.1. support research with a view
to establishing national strategies for cultural education at school and
as part of informal education and lifelong learning;
14.2. make cultural education through qualified arts teachers
and artists mandatory at school and provide related training for
all teachers;
14.3. facilitate access of young people from disadvantaged,
minority and migrant backgrounds, as well as from culturally disadvantaged
regions, to cultural education, thus counteracting tendencies to
isolate or create parallel societies;
14.4. provide platforms of dialogue and learning for people
of all ages and backgrounds, also for people distant from the arts,
in order to promote integration and cohesion through cultural education;
14.5. promote diversity in culture, as well as respect and tolerance
vis-à-vis other cultures, for instance by distinguishing national
identity from a particular culture, but recognising the common cultural
roots and historic cultural inter-relations in Europe and beyond;
14.6. recognise culture and the arts as an open and living phenomenon
of humankind when teaching cultural heritage;
14.7. develop at national level an adequate assessment of cultural
education and social competencies when evaluating educational success,
thus complementing the OECD’s PISA studies and other programmes
monitoring the results of education;
14.8. set up, in co-operation with the Council of Europe, projects
for the implementation of the UNESCO Road Map for Arts Education
and present them at the next World Conference on Arts Education,
planned to be held in Seoul in 2010.
15. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
15.1. transmit this recommendation
to the competent national authorities and to the participants in
the 23rd Session of the Standing Conference of European Ministers
of Education, to be held in Slovenia in June 2010;
15.2. develop a policy framework for assessing educational success
with regard to social competencies of students, in particular in
areas such as cultural knowledge, creativity, teamwork and intercultural
understanding;
15.3. analyse gender differences in educational success and
develop strategies for gender-specific support in education at national
level, in particular through targeted cultural education at the
level of primary education;
15.4. recognise the right to cultural education, set up assistance
programmes for member states on ensuring proper implementation of
the right to education under Article 2 of the first Protocol to
the European Convention on Human Rights and monitor such implementation,
in particular as regards people from disadvantaged, minority or
migrant backgrounds, in order to combat cultural illiteracy and
a growing educational and cultural divide in society.