European, global and intercultural dimension in curriculum development

The final objectives and developmental objectives also focus on human rights, Holocaust education, world issues, the workings of international organisations, the countries of the European Union, the unfair distribution of wealth and the diversity in ways of life and cultural diversity. One of the cross-curricular themes in secondary education is 'civic education'. But also the subjects philosophy-of-life education, 'world studies', 'community studies', 'history' and 'geography' deal specifically with the European and international dimension and civic education. The King Baudouin Foundation actively supports citizenship training in education, among other means through the development of training programmes (the Active Citizenship Process brought to a close with a forum in 2011), and the publication Scholen en burgerschapseducatie (2010), which can be downloaded via the KBF website.

On matters of European training and internationalisation in schools, the Department for Education and Training works in conjunction with:

• The Ryckevelde Foundation, http://www.ryckevelde.be/
• Land commandership Alden-Biesen, http://www.alden-biesen.be

These organisations support schools with setting up an international project and organise regular study days and conferences about internationalisation.

The European eTwinning platform helps schools integrate the European dimension in day-to-day classroom activities. Young people and teachers from different European countries get to know one another and are able to work together in a secure online environment. A large number of Flemish schools take part in eTwinning projects.

For the language programmes see 13.1.1 and 13.1.2.

Partnerships and networks

VLOR, the Flemish Education Council (see 2.7.2.1.) was instrumental in the foundation of EUNEC (European Network of Education Councils) in 1999 and also acts as its secretariat.

The Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Training (see 9.3.2.) acts as the secretariat for CIDREE, the Consortium of Institutions for Development and Research in Education in Europe, which was founded in 1990.

The Department also houses the secretariat of SICI, the Standing International Conference of Inspectorates, which was founded in 1995,

Since 1986, the Flemish Community has also been affiliated to ENSI, Environment and School Initiatives, which promotes sustainable-development education.

Ever since 1998, Flemish schools have been participating in EU pilot projects on quality assurance and self-evaluation at primary and secondary-education level and from 2003 similar EU initiatives were undertaken in relation to adult education.

The Dutch-Flemish cooperation on inspections took a more concrete shape through the intensive exchange of output data obtained from full school inspections.