Declaration of Intent
A formal Declaration of Intent for Cooperation in Education was signed by Ministers from Scotland and France on 30 November 2004 in Paris.
The then Deputy First Minister and François Fillon, Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research, signed the Agreement respectively on behalf of Scottish and French Ministers.
The Agreement commits both countries to developing closer co-operation in education and training through sharing good practice and establishing joint projects at pupil/student, teacher/practitioner and administrator/policymaker levels. More specifically, the Agreement outlined the commitment to:
1. Strengthening cooperation and dialogue on educational matters through the development of exchanges between experts and policymakers; and
2. Encouraging exchanges of good practice and promoting cooperation projects between pupils, students, teachers, school managers and more generally all of those involved in the development and implementation of educational policies in the following fields:
- quality of learning and teaching;
- professional training, enterprise in education and the organisation of training periods in the workplace;
- development of mobility in higher education in keeping with the motions adopted in 'the (Sorbonne-)Bologna process';
- lifelong learning, in keeping with the motions adopted within 'the Lisbon process';
- the use of ICT and eLearning; and
- teacher training: exchanges of trainee and qualified teachers.
Activity will be progressed via an Action Plan, agreed in October 2005, to be taken forward by a bi-lateral implementation group. Scottish representation on the group includes HMIE, Learning and Teaching Scotland, the Association of Directors of Education Scotland, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, local authority international education representatives, the Scottish Funding Council, Universities Scotland and British Council Scotland. Similar French bodies are also represented.
The Action Plan includes a number of concrete commitments such as promoting school partnerships, exchanges of trainee teachers and developing joint PhDs, and specifies priority areas to share policy approaches and practice in, for example, citizenship education, healthy eating, vocational education and training and implementing the European Qualifications Framework and the Bologna process.
At the implementation group's first full meeting, on 24 November 2005 in Paris, a series of co-operative activities and actions under each of the six articles of the plan were agreed. Lead contacts from both countries were designated for each activity to take forward more detailed planning and action on a bi-lateral basis.
For more information about the agreement and action plan contact:
Jeff Maguire
The Scottish Government Schools Directorate - International Team
Tel: 0131 244 0914
jeff.maguire@scotland.gsi.gov.uk