Platform of resources and references for plurilingual and intercultural education

Access to education and success at school depend heavily on language competences

The Platform is an instrument enabling member states to develop their programmes relating to languages of schooling and all language teaching while also benefitting from their own experience and expertise.

It offers an open and dynamic resource, with systems of definitions, points of reference, descriptions and descriptors, studies and good practices which member states are invited to consult and use in support of their policy to promote equal access to quality education according to their needs, resources and educational culture.
 

 The Platform in the context of the Language Policy Programme

 History of the Platform: a Council of Europe policy choice

Languages of schooling

The Platform concerns all languages, in particular languages of schooling which are

• taught as subjects in their own right (literacy, reading, writing, literature, thinking about language, etc.)
• but also used for the teaching of other subjects (maths, biology, history, geography etc.).

and which can be

• national languages in most countries, such as Albanian in Albania or Swedish in Sweden
• regional or minority languages in some education systems, such as Corsican in Corsica (France) or German in the schools of the German minority in Denmark.

A Council of Europe Recommendation

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe addressed a Recommendation to member states on “the importance of competences in the language(s) of schooling for equity and quality in education and for educational success".

 Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)5

 Explanatory Memorandum