#Romania2019.eu/EduMin Andronescu: We'll pay a special attention to promoting inclusion, excellency and mobility

Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu participated on Thursday in the Forum on the Future of Learning in Brussels, underscoring that the Romanian Presidency at the European Union Council will pay a special attention to promotion inclusion, excellency and mobility.

"Moreover, as we proposed in the Trio programme, the Presidencies will support the debates and decisions that aim at adopting and enforcing the cooperation frameworks in the education, youth, culture and sports area, such as the Strategic framework in education and training post-2020 or the new EU Youth Strategy," Minister Ecaterina Andronescu stated in the opening of the forum, at the invitation extended by European Commissioner for education, culture, youth and sports Tibor Navracsics, a release of the Education Ministry mentions.

The Minister stated that during the mandate, our country aims to complete the recommendation of the Council regarding the education systems and high quality care of the child.

"We all agree and the studies confirm it, that the first years of the child's life are essential for the training and development of lifelong learning ability. Learning is an incremental process. Creating a solid foundation in the early years of life is a prerequisite for the development of higher-level competences and educational success, and is equally crucial for the health and well-being of children," the Romanian dignitary added.

On this occasion, the Education Minister underscored the essential role of teachers in strengthening a performing educational system. Thus, teaching staff should be in the center of the initiatives aimed at the education reforms, being necessary to focus the efforts on the quality of initial and continue training of teachers, as well as on the status and attractiveness of this profession, the press release mentions.

She thanked the European Commission for the initiative to establish the European Experts Group on Education and Training, with the results of this group's work following to substantially contribute to the drawing-up of a new EU cooperation framework in education and training area.

The debate regarding the conclusions of the experts group's activities will be continued at the high level meeting, that will take place at end of February in Bucharest.

The Forum on the Future of Learning is a discussion platform regarding the challenges that Europe is confronted with and their impact over the education and training systems. The main themes of reflection at this year's edition aimed at demographic change, inclusion and citizenship, technological change and the future of work, digitsation of society, environmental concerns, as well as investments, reforms and governance in education. The event was attended by education actors and policy decision-makers, with the debates being based on the findings of the Independent Expert Group on Education and Training established by the European Commission in 2018, the quoted source mentions. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)