Schola Europaea / Office of the Secretary-General Ref.: 2019-01-D-65-en-3 Orig.: FR Report of the Secretary-General to the Board of Governors of the European Schools for the year 2018 Approved by the Board of Governors of the European Schools at its meeting on 9-12 April 2019, in Athens This report refers to the following documents - Facts and figures on the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year in the European Schools (Ref. 2018-10-D- 17-en-3) - Report on school failures and repeat rates in the European Schools – 2018 (Ref. 2018-09-D-26-en-2) - Statistical report on educational support and on the integration of pupils with special educational needs into the European Schools in the year 2017-2018 (Ref. 2018-11-D-32-en-4) - ICT Report 2018 (Ref.: 2018-02-D-17-en-3) + Annex: Report of the IT-PEDA Working Group (Ref. 2019-02- D-16-en-1) - Report on the European Baccalaureate 2018 (Ref. 2018-09-D-12-en-6) - Annual Report of the financial controller for the year 2018 (Ref. 2019-02-D-25-en-3) - Annual Activity Report - art. 103.6 Financial Regulation 2017 (Ref. 2019-03-D-1-en-2) - Policy on enrolment in the Brussels European Schools for the 2019-2020 school year (Ref. 2018-12-D-14-en- 2) - Fact sheets on Accredited European Schools (Ref. 2018-11-D-21-en-2) – Updated in November 2018 - Multi-annual and annual plan 2019 of the Office of the Secretary-General of the European Schools (Réf. 2019-03-D-19-en-2) All these documents are available on the website of the Office of the Secretary-General of the European Schools (https://www.eursc.eu/en/Office/reports-statistics). 2019-01-D-65-en-3 1/43 CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 3 II. MANAGEMENT OF THE SYSTEM BY THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT 4 A. PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS 4 Overview of the activities of the Pedagogical Development Unit during 4 the year 2018 B. HUMAN RESOURCES 12 C. LEGAL ASPECTS 15 D. BUDGETARY ASPECTS 16 16 Budget of the Office of the Secretary-General E. CENTRAL ENROLMENT AUTHORITY FOR THE BRUSSELS EUROPEAN 17 SCHOOLS (CEA) 1. Objectives and priorities for enrolment for the year 2018-2019 17 2. Results of the 2018-2019 Enrolment Policy 18 3. Enrolment Policy for 2019-2020 20 F. INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE SCHOOLS 21 III. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REFORM OF THE EUROPEAN SCHOOL SYSTEM 33 1. Reform of the European School System - context 33 2. Funding of the system: sharing out of the costs of seconded staff 34 amongst the Member States (cost sharing) 3. Opening up of the System 36 4. Autonomy of the European Schools and governance 40 IV. CONCLUSION 41 2019-01-D-65-en-3 2/43 I. INTRODUCTION The objective of this report is to provide the members of the Board of Governors and all our other stakeholders with consolidated facts and figures on the European School system as a whole and to inform it about the main developments which occurred in the different areas of activity of the General Secretariat and about the situation of the schools. All suggestions as to how to improve the quality or the content of the report are welcome. The reports listed on the cover page should be considered as an integral part of this report. Their content will thus not be repeated in this document. The report attempts to reflect and show a substantial proportion of the efforts deployed in managing the European School system. It also provides an opportunity to thank all the people who contributed to its writing and to management of the European School system. 2019-01-D-65-en-3 3/43 II. MANAGEMENT OF THE SYSTEM BY THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT A. PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS Overview of the activities of the Pedagogical Development Unit during the year 2018 One of the Pedagogical Development Unit’s tasks, under the Deputy Secretary-General’s supervision and responsibility, is monitoring of teaching and learning in the European School system for quality assurance purposes. An important development in this respect is that the Head of Unit (supported by one of his assistants) is a member of the Quality Assurance Working Group, establishing a strong link between the activities of the Unit and the working group. Besides the organisation of and follow-up on the pedagogical meetings (Boards of Inspectors and the Joint Teaching Committee), the Unit was responsible for the management of over 70 working groups. The demands from stakeholders and external parties led to an increasing workload for the whole unit. Due to the increased load, and especially the need for development in digital competence, the unit has been temporarily reinforced with an assistant with a high professional profile in the field of digital pedagogy, whose main tasks involve, amongst others, the setting up of a common platform for Inspectors and a pedagogical platform to share good practices. New Marking System The New Marking System (NMS) was introduced in September 2018; the main focus this year was therefore preparing for the change. The Steering Committee (composed of Inspectors and occasionally supported by an external expert and the representatives of Directors, Deputies and Directors of Accredited European Schools) was deeply engaged in planning and executing the training measures and preparing for implementation of the NMS in the Baccalaureate Cycle as from September 2019. The Guidelines produced (Ref. 2017-05-D-29-en-7) were widely used during the training courses and in the schools by teachers and the management. There was increased public interest in implementation of the NMS within the system (parents, pupils, teachers) and externally (e.g. in the member states). In June 2018 the PDU published an interactive communication (https://www.eursc.eu/en/European-Schools/studies/marking-scale) on the European Schools’ website. Another communication task was the careful design of an information package that the member states will need when taking the necessary legal and pedagogical measures required by the new marking system. This communication will be published in 2019, but the planning started in 2018. This task is going to be carried out, in cooperation with one another, by the PDU and the European Baccalaureate Unit, under the guidance and responsibility of the Deputy Secretary-General. The Pedagogical Development Unit is also in charge of updating the General Rules. In order to comply with the Regulation of 27 April 2016 on the protection of people with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, the General Rules needed to be updated, which led to amendment of Articles 11 and 50 and the addition of Article 52a. These amendments were approved by the Board of Governors of the European Schools at its meeting of 4, 5, 6 and 7 December 2018 and entered into force with effect from 1 January 2019. 2019-01-D-65-en-3 4/43 Following implementation of the new marking system, which entered into force in September 2018, a new version of the General Rules was published on the website in July 2018. Educational Support In 2018, the Deputy Secretary-General provided the necessary assistance to the Inspectors responsible for Educational Support in order to produce the ‘Annual Statistical Report on Educational Support and on the integration of pupils with Special Educational Needs into the European Schools in the year 2017-2018’. In addition, as follow-up to the UN Recommendation concerning Inclusive Education in the European Schools, sent to the European Commission, a Sub-Working Group of the regular Educational Support Policy Working met four times in order to prepare a ‘Report on Inclusive Education in the European Schools’, which was submitted to the Joint Board of Inspectors and the Joint Teaching Committee in October 2018 and finally to the Board of Governors in December 2018. The Board of Governors mandated the Educational Support Working Group to produce a ‘Draft Action Plan’ in order to respond to the recommendations made in the ‘Report on Inclusive Education’ and in the ‘Evaluation Report on the Implementation of the Educational Support Policy in the European Schools’. During 2018, the Deputy Secretary-General continued to coordinate work on the call for expressions of interest from therapists wishing to apply to offer their services to pupils with special educational needs and for whom an agreement is in place. The call for expressions of interest in its current form was activated as from 1 May 2016 and is valid until 30 June 2020. Combating failures and repeating In the context of analysis of statistics, the Pedagogical Development Unit was also charged with following up on the analysis of repeat rates and on the introduction of the 19 measures to combat school failure approved, by the Board of Governors at its December 2010 meeting, and also in the light of the amendments1 made to Article 61 of the General Rules in 2013. The repeat rate in percentage terms at the end of the 2017-2018 school year remained essentially stable and appreciably lower than the rates recorded in 2015-2016 and previously. Data on the pass rate in the different subjects in years S4, S5 and S6 were also produced, as were data on appeals lodged against decisions of Class Councils. The Analysis of School Failures and Repeat Rates Working Group re-started its activities in September 2018 and started to produce an in-depth statistical analysis to make recommendations to further reduce failures and facilitate harmonisation. The working group decided to contribute to implementation of the new marking system by checking results in years S1-S5 (e.g.