As part of the Agency’s continuing active participation in the European Commission’s Education and Training (ET 2020) Working Groups (WGs), a representative recently attended a Peer Learning Activity (PLA) held by the Working Group on Promoting Common Values and Inclusive Education. 

Agency Director Cor J. W. Meijer has been invited to present at the Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary on Thursday 7 November. The presentation will be live streamed on the University’s website.

The Agency has recently launched a new intranet solution for its staff. The solution, called MyAgency, will be extended for use by the Agency’s country contacts at the Agency bi-annual meeting in Budapest this week. 

The intranet is built on the Microsoft SharePoint platform, a content and document management, analysis and storage tool. Through this platform, MyAgency enables information sharing and collaborative working practices across the organisation. 

The second Agency Bi-annual Meeting of 2019 will take place on 4–7 November in Budapest, Hungary, at the kind invitation of the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities, State Secretariat of Education.

Bi-annual Meetings offer an opportunity for the Representative Board members and National Co-ordinators from Agency member countries to come together and exchange ideas and practices in inclusive education. They are also a chance for Agency staff members to outline projects and outcomes and gather information from member countries for future Agency work. 

In 2015, the European Parliament called for a child guarantee: 

so that every child in poverty can have access to free healthcare, free education, free childcare, decent housing and adequate nutrition, as part of a European integrated plan to combat child poverty (European Parliament, 2015) 

A workshop for the Agency support to the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs (MERA) took place in Athens on 23–24 September 2019. The project, which is focusing on promoting inclusive education in Greece, is funded by the European Union’s Structural Reform Support Programme and implemented in co-operation with the European Commission.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth in Cyprus has planned a legislative reform with the aim to make the education system more inclusive. Upon request of the Ministry, the European Commission’s Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) is co-operating with the Agency to assist in preparing a new bill for inclusive education. The first phase of the project was completed in summer 2019 and has resulted in the development of a draft bill on inclusive education.

A commitment to equity and inclusion in education in a new statement of intent.

The French institute for inclusive education, INSHEA, and the Nouvelle École Farny in Geneva, Switzerland, have developed a new training programme for teachers working with pupils with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).