In an upcoming publication, "Reshaping European Education", the European Round Table of industrialists, a highly influential lobby organisation of 45 leading European industrialists, urges a radical change in education policy in European Union member states. BERND SCHNEIDER, editor of the German publication Newsletter -ICP-, reports on a leaked version of the document.
According to the ERT, the readiness of employees to compete and to increase their own efficiency will be crucial for Europe's future competitiveness. To foster the EU's position on the world market, the group argues that reforms should not be limited to the education system's hardware — schools and universities — but should aim to improve performance of the so-called "humanware".
Founded in 1983 by Volvo's Peer Gyllenhammer and Fiat's former boss Umberto Agnelli, the ERT has become the most influential among the 5000 lobbying organisations based in Brussels. In 1984, for instance, it was the ERT which, by publishing Europe 1990: an Agenda for Action, gave impetus to the blocked negotiations on building a European common market.
Since then the group has continued to sow the seeds for Brussels' policy by publishing theses on topics like transport, trade and the environment. The members of the ERT have 3 million employees and a joint turnover slightly larger than the GNP of the Netherlands.
In the leaked document on education in Europe, which is to be published before the June summit in Essen, Germany, the ERT demands adjustment of education to modern industrial concepts.
Central to the paper is industry's criticism of schools and universities limiting themselves to reproduction of knowledge. Research conducted by an ERT expert group revealed that although today's school leavers hold a considerable amount of general knowledge, they often fall short of industrial demands for flexible and loyal staff with team spirit.
To create a European work force which has internalised these attributes as well as a general acceptance of growth-oriented economy and the willingness to compete, the ERT considers it insufficient to just reform official institutes of education. All influences, including parents and TV, must become part of the new concept of education.
This should ultimately lead to a generation of employees working not due to external pressure, but to the complete internalisation of the industrial work ethic, which makes them desire to work most efficiently.
The ERT aims to complete this attitude-building in Europe's future children before they turn 18 years of age.
Thereafter, universities would educate their students in accordance with industry's demand for staff. To ensure this, the ERT suggests establishing joint committees of industry and academics. Implementation of the committees' decisions could be checked by "scrutineers" from industry.
The ERT stresses that learning is no longer a privilege of youth. The future must be governed by "lifelong learning". Hence age would no longer be a matter of biological or social definition, but be determined by the individual's "competence in certain soundly based levels of ability". The paper gives no details on what shall happen with people not meeting this standard.
The concept of lifelong learning has received strong support from universities already, since it was in fact developed in the CRE-ERT European University-Industry Forum, a permanent platform for cooperation chaired by Professor Hinrich Seidel, president of the Standing Conference of Rectors, Presidents and Vice-Chancellors (CRE).
The leaked preliminary version of "Reshaping European Education" has been translated into German and distributed to German student unions, where it has encountered heavy criticism.
The students see the document as a renewed attempt by industry to push through binding standards in European education policy. The last such approach was the "Memorandum on Higher Education in the European Communities", prepared by the EC's Task Force Human Resources in 1992. The paper failed to be accepted on national and local levels, mainly due to its insensitive language in support of a completely economic orientation of education.
Since that memorandum only followed an ERT publication, German students expect the new ERT document to trigger off further action of the European Union. The EU is entitled to issue guidelines on education policy by the Maastricht Treaty.
Having learned from past mistakes, the ERT in "Reshaping European Education" uses language resembling rather progressive social science textbooks. Much of its terminology could have been directly adopted from student union catalogues of education demands. However, the actual meaning of words like "interdisciplinarity" is altered.
In an analysis of the paper prepared by the students union of Hannover University, criticism is sharp. "When succeeding in establishing such an airtight model of conditioning, it becomes possible to determine what adult X develops from embryo Y. Some people dreamed this dream already 60 years ago."