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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 13785 | 06 May 2015
Good governance and enhanced quality in education
1. The Committee of Ministers has taken
note of Assembly Recommendation 2054 (2014) on “Good governance
and enhanced quality in education”. It has brought it to the attention
of the member States governments and sent it to the Steering Committee
for Educational Policy and Practice (CDPPE) for comments.
2. The Committee of Ministers thanks the Assembly for its interest
in the proceedings of the Council of Europe Standing Conference
of Ministers of Education, held in Helsinki in April 2013, and stresses
that the conclusions of that conference, and also the guidelines
set out in Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)13 on ensuring quality education,
have been taken into account in the 2014-2015 Programme and Budget.
3. The Assembly recommends “encouraging the development of national
policies coherent with the findings of international quality assurance
programmes and […] supporting member States in their implementation”.
In this connection, the Committee of Ministers points out that quality
assurance is an important component of several bilateral and regional
activities in the Council of Europe's higher education programme,
which include the fourth informal regional conference of Education
Ministers on the implementation of the European Higher Education
Area, organised in Baku in October 2014.
4. It should be noted, in this respect, that the extent to which
quality assurance schemes are developed and placed on a formal footing
varies greatly from one sector of the education system to another.
As regards higher education, there have been standards and guidelines
for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area since
2005. The competent ministers are to consider a revised version
of those standards when they meet in Yerevan in May 2015.
5. The Committee of Ministers has taken due note of the Assembly's
recommendation to begin work to analyse the relevance and impact
of the existing national and international quality assessment instruments
in the field of education. In this respect, Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)13
stipulates that member States should “evaluate the implementation
of the provisions of this recommendation in their policies, and
inform the Steering Committee for Education Policy and Practice
(CDPPE) of the measures undertaken and progress achieved”. Furthermore,
the Committee of Ministers wishes to inform the Assembly that the
CDPPE has included, in its programme for the two-year period of
2014-2015, the creation of a select informal assembly of experts
in the field of higher education to advise on its policy in this
sphere. It is however not envisaged, at this stage, as the Assembly
recommends, to set up a permanent committee of experts on higher
education. Nevertheless, the Committee of Ministers could bear these
proposals in mind in its discussions on the future programmes and budgets.