Orientation of proposal

The principle of a public education and training service needs reassertion at every stage of both child and adult education, as adults require increasing training in the information society. It should be incorporated in the constitutive principles of the European Union, as an integral part of our social system and it must be reasserted at major international negotiations, such as at the WTO, and universities, institutes, etc.

Context

Although there were no problems with user-friendliness with the initial experiences of open and e-learning, contrary to certain fears beforehand, the real danger comes from commercialisation. Teachers have now become the choice targets of the proponents of the total market. Taking advantage of the development of new forms of teaching linked to information technologies, such as remote tutoring, they aim at subjecting this sector to competition, concerning both the writing of the content taught and the choice of teacher. This allows them to undermine the principle of social mix so fundamental to the spirit of public education, since it is a factor of integration, equality and it helps to build civic consciousness. The WTO negotiations in the framework of the GATRS (General Agreement on Trade Related Services), shows that education is under threat from the private sector which uses the technical solutions used for e-learning as a pretext.