A long-awaited joint workshop for Agency Representative Board members and European Agency Statistics on Inclusive Education (EASIE) data experts took place in Tallinn, Estonia, from 26–28 September 2017. The meeting was an associated event of the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The rationale for inviting a mixed group of policy-makers and data experts was to collect inputs and reach outline agreements on areas for future data collection and on ways to improve current data collection tools and procedures.
In his welcome speech, Mr Mart Laidmets, Deputy Secretary General for General and Vocational Education from the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, gave an overview of the movement from disability-centred segregated special education provision towards inclusion in Estonia. He underlined the importance of data availability for policy-making.
Mr Cor Meijer, Agency Director, launched the EASIE 2014 Dataset Cross-Country Report. This report presents the agreed data from participating countries in a non-judgemental format relating to 17 indicators that were identified and agreed upon with the national data experts.
The EASIE project team was pleased to have representatives from Bulgaria, Serbia and Georgia in attendance for the first time.
The meeting outcomes serve as a valuable input for the project team on ways to improve the current data collection tools and procedures for the 2018 EASIE data collection exercise.
The EASIE 2014 Dataset Cross-Country Report is now online. The 2014 dataset is available in the Data area of the Agency’s website, whereas the 2016 dataset will be published in the coming months.
