Dear Parents,

Attached is an official statement by the UK with regard to their position on seconding teachers as from September 2013

Whilst the ESFPA understands the UK’s stance to cease the seconding of teachers, it nevertheless deplores the inaction of the BoG as a body to resolve this cost-sharing issue which has existed for several years (in fact since 2002) and the apparent lack of progress by the Working Group established in 2009 that was tasked to provide the BoG solutions. We appreciate that the UK has at least offered to assist the schools with locally recruiting teachers, even though we are concerned that – considering the packages on offer vs. the packages offered to seconded teachers – it will be more difficult for the European Schools to attract highly qualified and experienced teachers. Moreover, the question has to be asked if other member states will follow the UKs stance. At the same time, in view of these developments, we hope that the on-going financial reform does not result in yet further cuts.

As regards the ESF (and other “smaller” schools), we have to say as a major beneficiary of this unfair distribution of costs, since in Brussels and Luxembourg almost every language has a section. Not only is the official number of SWALS (a.k.a. MTT) students in ESF approximately 20%, but also a large part of the remaining 80% of L1 English/German/French/ Italian L1 students are not children of citizens of the respective providers (Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, UK). Therefore we would expect the home countries of those the families to contribute to the cost of the sponsor states, so that they don’t have to bear disproportionally high cost of providing highly qualified teachers.

From our position as parents this is yet another problem affecting the quality of education that the European School system promises to the staff of EU institutions.

The ESF PA together with Interparents (the body that represents the PA’s of all the European schools) are currently in discussion with regards to the next course of action to take. This in the near future may include requesting you as parents of students in the European school system to sign a number of petitions requesting:

• The Secretary General’s Office and the EU Commission tackle the issue of cost sharing amongst member states
• The UK Secretary for Education to reverse the UK decision for the benefit of the families in the system
• The Petitions Committee of the European Parliament requesting a proper review of the system and not just budgetary cuts
• The BoG to present an estimate of the number of non-UK students enrolled in the – for the moment – English sections across the European Schools
• Ministries of education of “beneficiary” member states to contribute, in a systemic manner, to the cost of education of their citizens’ children by UK and Irish teachers

As soon as we have any further information or a precise decision on how to proceed we will be in touch with you again. Finally we would also welcome any assistance /suggestions /feedback from you as parents on this issue.

The Board of the Parents' Association