Equal rights in education

The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) has released a report showing that ethnic and religious minorities face discrimination and disadvantage across European education systems, concluding that the goals of the Lisbon strategy of making the EU more competitive with greater social cohesion and in preparing its citizens for a more diverse Europe are not being met in the field of education and training. These shortcomings manifest themselves in many ways from limited access to education to school segregation and to lack of educational attainment. Pascale Charhon, ENAR Director, comments “education remains at the heart of promoting anti-racism in Europe, both from the perspective of fostering intercultural societies, and in addressing disadvantage experienced by ethnic and religious minorities.”
The report precedes the European Commission’s conference of the future of schools in Europe and highlights the current legislative and policy measures for addressing discrimination in education and training at the EU level and examines some of the barriers to effective implementation.