Villano Qiriazi – Head of the Council of Europe Education Department – addressed to EdTech Companies at the EdTech Next Summit 2023 which took place in Bielefeld (Germany) on September 12 and 13. The event brought together more than 1 000 players from the European EdTech industry, working at all levels of education, as well as international stakeholders and policymakers.

In his opening speech, he emphasized the profound importance of joint action, and the impact and role of educational technology companies, in ensuring a European shared vision for education, based on the values of human rights, democracy, and rule of law. The Education Department’s mission of ensuring the best interest of learners is at the foundation of its work on regulating Artificial Intelligence in Education, one of the key themes of the Summit as much as of the Department’s Strategy 2024-2030.

The event also represented the opportunity to introduce participants to the “Guidelines to Support Equitable Partnerships of Education Institutions and the Private Sector”, concerned with embedding digital citizenship in public/private partnerships within education. The Guidelines related initiative already saw companies and education stakeholders signing up to a Statement of Commitment and reporting back with their sense-making practices related to DCE.

Visit the initiative’s webpage to learn more about the initiative, as well as about the work on DCE and AI.