Outcome of the ESM Admin Board

27 Jan Outcome of the ESM Admin Board

01/2020  The Administration Board meeting was held on 22.1.2020. The Secretary General (SG) explained at the meeting that he has received the mandate of the Board of Governors (BoG) to ensure that all the European Schools follow the same rules.

For the ESM the following topics were discussed:

1. Admission policy: The SG referred to the particular restriction (exception) of the admission criteria of category III pupils at the ESM, put in place by the same BoG in 2010, with the reason of the lack of space at the ESM. This reason is not valid anymore since the school has now a lot of space at the two sites (Neuperlach and Fasangarten). Therefore the SG will inform the BoG at the next April meeting that the particular restriction of 2010 has to be lifted. It has to be further mentioned that the German Ministry of the BMBF is very favorable on the cancellation of the restricted admission policy criteria defined in 2010 for the ESM.
2. Spanish Language section: The SG and the European Commission Representative pointed out that the Spanish language section has actually no secondary cycle, and they expressed themselves at the meeting strongly in favor of extending the section to that cycle. The possible creation of a secondary cycle will be discussed at the next BoG meeting in April. It has to be remarked that the Spanish delegation will preside the April meeting of the BoG.
3. Dutch Language section: The SG and the European Commission Representative pointed out that the Dutch Language section has very few pupils in the primary cycle. The sustainability of the dutch Language section in primary must be studied and will be further addressed at the next meeting of the BoG.
4. Kindergarten: Each language section in the primary must have a corresponding Kindergarten group. The school was instructed by the SG to fulfill this rule and to organize NL,GR and IT Kindergarten groups.

It is very likely that an in-depth discussion will follow between all the stakeholders involved (EPO, ESM, Office of the SG, etc.) also because the four points above seem to be in strong relation with each other, and obviously also pedagogical, bureaucratic and financial issues will play a role.

The Parents Association will follow the development of these topics together with the school very closely and will try to defend the interest of all the parents in the context of each proposed measure.