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Education and training
are of central importance to Europe's economic and social future. Through
exchanges of people and ideas, European cooperation can contribute to
raising the overall quality of teaching methods and materials and to
developing more appropriate ways of meeting new learning challenges.
The European Community action programme for cooperation in the field
of education, Socrates, was launched in 1995 and runs to the end of
1999. Spanning the 15 Member States of the European Union, as well as
Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, it is the first European initiative
covering education at all ages and forms part of a broader approach
to the concept of lifelong learning. Socrates is now being extended
to some of the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
Far from aiming at uniformity, the programme is designed to derive maximum
benefit from the diversity of education systems in the different countries.
It supports transnational cooperation as a means of searching out innovative
solutions appropriate to particular circumstances.
Familiarity with other countries, languages and ways of life is an increasingly
necessary educational and professional asset. Mobility and exchange
schemes are therefore an important feature of Socrates. At the same
time the programme aims to provide a European dimension to learning
at home as well as abroad. Joint curricula development and school projects,
exchange visits for teachers and university staff, the use of electronic
distance learning methods and European networking between educational
administrators are all part of the overall approach.
The programme gives particular consideration to making sure that poorer
or more remote regions can participate fully. The educational needs
of disabled or other disadvantaged people, and equal opportunities are
stressed in all aspects of Socrates.
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