Eurydice

Last April, the Ministry of Education announced that the schools have the possibility to stay open during summer 2021 to carry out the activities foreseen by the Piano scuola estate.  

One hundred years ago, in 1921 – quite late among European countries – the law on compulsory education came into force in Finland and all children aged 7 to 13 had to go to school. At that time compulsory schooling covered six years of primary school. The following reform was in 1968 when the Basic Education Act extended compulsory schooling to nine years: it consisted of six years of primary and three years of lower secondary education.  Over 50 years later, it was time for another reform and extend compulsory education time once more. 

At the beginning of school year 2020/2021 the Ministry for Education, as part of its systemic action plan to re-open the schools – for all students and during every school day – decided to create a repository of recorded lessons aiming to make the contents accessible online to all students and specially to those who were not able to attend school during the pandemic.

The annual school rhythm for pupils in compulsory education in the French Community of Belgium is about to undergo a revolution.  On 12 May 2021, the Government approved the guidance note on the revision of annual school rhythms, applicable to all types and levels of compulsory education as of next school year 2022-2023.

The Government of the German-speaking Community in Belgium embarked on the large-scale exercise “Gesamtvision – Bildung zukunftsfähig gestalten”. The aim is to improve educational opportunities and the performance of the education system while ensuring educational equity in the long term by adapting to the cultural, economic and technological challenges of the 21st century. 

Sweden is one of the few countries in Europe where schools were kept open after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic during the spring of 2020.

Norway introduces a skills reform and provides funding to support flexible further education and life-long learning.

In 2020, the Norwegian government has implemented the skills reform “Learning throughout Life” (“Lære hele livet”) in order to improve the system of further education and training for working life and make it more flexible.  The national reform has two main goals:

On January 19, 2021, the LOMLOE (Organic Law Amending the Organic Law of Education) came into force. The new legislation repeals the LOMCE (Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality, 2013), modifies and updates the LOE (Organic Law of Education, 2006).

In Scotland, all school buildings were physically closed on 23 March 2020 as a result of strict lockdown measures to respond to the spread of Covid-19.  Scotland was relatively well prepared to quickly adapt its education system to the exceptional context of a pandemic, in part due to the existence of a national online learning platform called Glow.

Glow

On December 18, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the new Act on the Intervention for Children and Youth with Emotional and Conduct Disorders and Problems in Education. It paves the way for establishment of regional professional service centres and supports holistic approach and timely intervention.