BackPolicy Area Education Contributes to Peer Review in La Réunion
Anders Bergström from Policy Area Education was invited to a peer review in La Réunion organized by Interreg Europe.
International Collaboration to Tackle Youth Unemployment
Invited by the regional government, experts from Europe and Canada came together for three days to jointly develop proposals for a strategy to reduce youth unemployment on the island. Today, 30% of the inhabitants of La Réunion live below the poverty line. Many students drop out of school to help support their families. Others drop out of school and become unemployed, often for the rest of their lives. The government on the island has been struggling with this problem for many years and is now seeking help from the outside world.
La Réunion – A Unique and Diverse Setting
La Réunion is a part of France located 800 kilometers east of Madagascar. The island has just over 800,000 inhabitants who represent many cultures but who nevertheless live in harmony with each other. The Creole culture is well represented, but Indians, Indonesians, Africans, and Europeans, mainly from France, also live on the island. Creole and French are the two languages spoken on the island.
A European Delegation Working Together
I was part of the group from Europe, which was organized by the Interreg Europe program, says Anders. Colleagues from Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and Germany participated with me. A second group consisted of researchers from three universities in France and a third group from Canada. The Canadians specialized in co-creation processes and organized two workshops with teachers, parents, employers, and other school personnel. One group with around 100 participants from the north island and a second with around 60 participants on the south island.
Concrete Outcomes and Future Collaboration
The results of these three days are now being processed by the island’s Ministry of Education together with the national ministry in France. There is now interest in arranging bilateral exchanges during the implementation of the strategy, perhaps also with the Baltic Sea Region. There were several aspects of for example the Swedish school that interested the hosts, including student democracy and the cooperation between school and working life. When parents are unemployed, it becomes particularly important to have a network around the schools of employers, associations and parents who can support the students.
Below are snapshots from the Peer Review in La Réunion.
The lady in the pink dress in this photo is Céline Sitouze, the island’s Minister of Education.
