In 23rd March 2023, Ministries of Education representatives from Cyprus, Malta, Spain, Hungary, Israel and Denmark attended the Ministries of Education STEM Working Group Meeting in the EUN office in Brussels.
The SLEs team held a focus group discussion with the representatives that revolved around 2 themes: 1. Existing open schooling policies and initiatives the ministries have in place in their countries and, 2. Challenges of open schooling and opportunities for the SLEs in the ministries’ countries. The purpose of the focus group discussion was to gain an understanding of the current state and challenges of open schooling in these countries, and to find out the SLEs project can fill these gaps.
The ministries present shared numerous examples of open schooling initiatives in their respective countries such as Teen Science Cafes in Malta and museum visits in Hungary and Israel. In Cyprus, activities such as excursions are scheduled as part of the curriculum, and students also visit professionals as part of their career orientation.
Some major obstacles to open schooling, according to the representatives, are the pressures that teachers already face and the lack of time. In several of the ministries’ countries, teachers have the freedom to implement open schooling and but is not part of the curriculum.
The representatives felt that open schooling is important and expressed an interest in implementing it in a structured way in schools.
Overall, the focus group discussion gave the SLEs team an opportunity to learn about the different ways countries implement open schooling and reflect on how the SLEs project can help schools, policy makers and teachers create pathways for open schooling.
