Introduction
Spain’s education and media systems have undergone various policy changes since the country joined the European Union (EU) in 1986. Most of these policy changes have come from internal initiatives. However, significant changes have been initiated through the EU. Spain itself has been instrumental in the development of EU educational policies that have been adopted by member countries. In similar regard, the country’s contribution in European public-media relations has been significance. The result of both contributions is slowly being felt in the European culture, considering that education and the media have greater influence in ways that people interact and how society’s future gets shaped. Concurrent section of this paper shall highlight on influences that both parties (EU and Spain) had on each others’ education, media and culture. The paper is equally divided into two sections, the first one dealing with Spain’s influence and the second one dealing with EU influence.
Spanish Influence
Spain has indeed been instrumental in the development of EU educational and media policies. According to Bialecki (2001, p. 330) Spain’s major contribution to the EU’s policy making processes has been through initiation of mediation programs between stakeholders. The country has been successful in brining stakeholders together in the process of developing policies. Under Spain’s presidency in 2002, EU successfully embarked on developing educational standards that member countries had to apply in their respective jurisdictions. The period was also marked by the introduction of media guidelines for industry players in the industry. Spain’s presidency emphasised on documents detailing on media and education agreements be forwarded to Eastern European countries intending to become members. The provision of these policies before those countries became members was meant to prepare for internal changes that would lead to meeting EU standards.
Spain has also played a vital role of influencing the union to develop and implement policies aimed and preserving minority language in the region (Lawn & Lingard, 2002, p. 57). This originates from Spain’s internal policies of preserving their own small languages. The success achieved in the country was what encouraged policy makers to embark on influencing rest of EU members into preserving their minority languages. This has been an important contribution considering pressure that small languages face at the face of globalisation and regional integration. Indeed, integration of European economies is increasingly requiring people in the region to use more common languages in daily dealings. As a result, those speaking minority languages are under pressure to use the more common ones. One way that Spain influenced the region in preserving languages is through the establishment of European Training and Languages Commission that has a department dealing exclusively with minority languages in Europe. Having a central body dealing with such issues has positive thing for the region; languages and cultures would be saved through this mechanism.
According to OECD (2003, p. 13) Spain is among EU members that see the integration of public-media relations policies as best ways to guarantee freedom of information as well as press freedom. In this regard, the country has been at the forefront of encouraging members states to join in the development of policies that would lead to higher higher degrees of freedom in the media. This especially happened when the country was holding EU presidency. The end of its presidency did not stop Spain from encouraging member states to follow on its initiated programs. Indeed, the country has been emphasizing on the importance of following on the initiatives developed previously. As a long time member of the union, the route of being positive about the EU helps new members to deal with challenges that come from their membership. Fact that the media in newer member countries from Europe experience freedom difficulties makes Spanish contribution valuable to those countries. Due to Spain’s contribution, it has become possible for new populations in newer and prospective member states to reap the benefits of free media, just like their counterparts in western Europe. On its part, Spain, which has been instrumental in improving media relations policies should continue with leadership roles.
The process of developing educational policies in the continent has been slower that many countries would prefer. Spain is reported to be a among ether countries pushing for the improvement in time it takes for media policies in the continent to be developed and implemented. This was seen in the time it took for the country to push through the establishment of the just mentioned freedom of the media and minority language. The country representatives at the EU have consistently claimed that economic integration has received too much concentration whereas important aspects of the union, education included has been ignored or received little attention (Bhola, 2000, p. 97). This has resulted to Spain representatives putting more pressures for member states to consider improving ways that media policies are developed.
Whitty (2002, p. 112) observes that participation of Spain in the EU educational policies development has resulted to the empowerment of policy makers working closely with country representatives. This originates from Spain’s insistence of Spain that educational policy development processes have to be done in with similar dedication as the way members do with economic concessions. In this regard, the union is able to develop policies that help faster that it has been doing in recent past. Representatives of Spain in the policy development policy has therefore become important for the entire region. Whitty further suggests that Spain is is well placed to address educational issues in both Western and Eastern Europe. This is consideration that the country has some areas with developed educational systems as its fellow countries in western Europe. This places Spain representatives at better positions to address educational issues in the western world. In this regard, Spanish representatives can easily come into agreements with their western European colleagues. On the other hand, a study by the Higher Education Institute (2007) stipulates some regions in the country have similar educational challenges liker the ones being experienced in some Eastern European countries. Having such educational challenges in the country provides Spanish policy makers in the EU with the right experience to help in the development of educational frameworks to be applied in the developing nations in Eastern Europe that are being admitted in the union. In this regard, it becomes possible for Spanish representatives to offer advisory serves to other representatives. Spain can therefore take a leading role in the development of educational frameworks in eastern Europe. Having the two European experiences on its backyard therefore provides the country with the right mix of solutions that can be integrated in the development of European wide policies.
Spain seats in different committees dealing with media issues. This is because the country sees transnational governance of the media as being more relevant that de-fragmented ones in individual countries as the best way of developing frameworks that will improve media standards in the country (Bhola, 2000, p. 107). The country’s emphasis on the reliance on inter-nation processes to develop media frameworks has resulted to Spain being respected as leader in such policies in the region. In response to this recognition, Spanish representatives have not shied away from facing the leadership challenges. The country has indeed embarked on taking the mantle of leadership in the region with great zeal. The confidence being exemplified by its representatives at the European level comes from the just mentioned mix of media challenges, whereas most of other EU member countries just happen to face singular challenge in their educational system. In this regard, the country representatives at the regional body should continue taking the leadership role at the development of educational policies in the region. Indeed, it is vital that representatives at the EU consider that they are best position to help rest of the community to deal with respective media freedoms. In addition, the country itself should consider developing internal policies that can be used as models for educational development in the region. Only through setting good examples can leaders in the country and their representatives at the EU level claim to be in a better positions to lead rest of member nations.
EU Influence
Though Spain has been instrumental in the development of educational and media policies among EU member states, the country, too, has been subject to the influence frrom its peers. This especially applies to the regions of the country facing greater academic and media challenges. Fact that several regions in the country faces such problems leads to conclusion that average educational attainment in the country’s average educational attainment at lower rates compared to other countries, and that media accountability and relations issues need to be improved. For instance, the OECD (2003, p. 14) estimates that Spain’s spending on education is lower that its fellow major economies in EU. In this regard, Spain has been under microscope from its fellow EU members regarding the spending. Though the country has been at the forefront of dealing with educational challenges in the wider EU area, the lower spending on its own educational programs leaves critics wondering on the whole rational of pushing other countries into better system while Spain itself has failed. This calls for the country to embark on putting its own system at work before making significant contributions to rest of the member states. In this regard, EU has been has been instrumental in recommending specific solutions tom Spanish education programs. The Spanish response to these calls has been positive, given the reasons stipulated in the last sections of this essay. At the same time, poor media accountability in some parts of Spain has attracted the wrath of the European Union, which has been pushing Spain into undertaking the necessary reforms.
The country’s higher education level has received its fair share of criticisms recently. For instance, the Academic Ranking of World Universities (2007) lists only one Spanish University (Barcelona) in the top 200 among inn the world. All other hundreds of Spanish universities are no where to be found. In this regard, the country has been facing pressure from the EU and member states to improve its educational system. One way that the country has been encouraged to take is reduction in the role of state in running institutions of higher running (Halpi & Troyna, 1995, p. 330). Halpin and Troyna have further found that the country responded positively to EU calls. Indeed, regional national government has embarked on developing frameworks that would lead to the institutions gaining more independence in running their affairs. This has been necessitated by the acceptance by the governance bodies that the state role in education should be to provide enabling environment for the institutions to embark on running their affairs in the best ways they know how. In this regard, it has been possible for the management in universities to undertake the necessary measures. National and regional authorities have also embarked on the process of ensuring that provide sector and non-profit entities are [provided with greater opportunities to take part in running of educational institutions in the country. In this regard, the country seems to be ion the right footing of educational development. The increased participation of the private sector and the non profits in running institutions of higher running has the advantage of leading to the improvement of competition in the sector. As a result, players in the industry would be dealing with the challenges by ensuring that school goers are treated in the best ways possible. The competition would also place the country’s education sector in similar footing with those in western Europe. This exposure to competition will mean improvement of education not just for Spain but also for the larger European zone. In addition, the countries in Eastern Europe that are getting integrated to the EU would have much more educational models to copy, and thus lead to better cultivation of competitive education sector among the member states. This will all lead to better preparation for the international job market.
The continued pressure by the European union, member states has therefore resulted to radical reform in Spain (OECD, 2001, p. 330). This has been achieved in various fronts. First, the country has embarked on implementing some radical curriculum programs dealing with educational challenges in the country. Second, remedial education has been introduced upon advisory from the European Union. This is to help students that have been struggling with their educational programs. Individual educational facilities have been accorded the liberty to control their curriculum. This means that the teachers can help students deal with class challenges, as opposed to the old program where the state had determined on procedures to be undertaken. The new system is good because teachers are well positioned to help their students compared to some government employee who used ton develop procedures for larger application. In addition to providing teachers with more control in ways of helping students deal with academic challenges, the national government has embarked on an ambitious plan of decentralising the management of educational program in the country. As a result, the regional governments and municipalities have been on the front of overseeing education in their respective jurisdictions. In this regard, these regional governments can easily deal with problems than when central government takes control of the entire system.
In addition, regional governments and local authorities deal with media issues in their respective jurisdictions means that people in these areas have direct control of their affairs. Indeed, they can hold authorities accountable, given that they are closer to them. Th people in these localities would be paying all the cost of running maintaining offices dealing with media accountability and relations. The pain of seeing their tax funds being misused by local governments has the positive impact of wanting to know the people responsible and consequently take the necessary measures. In addition, people in these areas would be demanding immediate attention to each and every small problem that affects the local media sector. Fact that this would be happening at earlies stages would mean that hardly would problems get to catastrophic levels; all matters would be addressed within the due time. Since members of the public would constantly pester officials with questions, it is more probable that the officials would be at the forefront of controlling employees and media staff in order to avoid conflicts with members of the public. In this regard, the country should be commended for take the bold reform steps. In addition to the success of dealing with media complaints at earlier stags, the new management would result to increased competition on media freedom between the regions and municipalities. The regions with greater freedom would end up boasting of larger industries that provide jobs and worthy news to members of the public.
With regard to Spain’s educational system, the EU has been pushing for the improvement of infrastructure, teaching materials and teacher incentive (Institute of High Education, 2003, p. 112). This is being done through direct call by the European union for all member states to improve assistance that respective national governments have had on educational. With respect to Spain, the national governments has been providing help to regional governments with lesser resources to be applied in respective educational systems. This is inconsideration that all areas in the country are not well endowed with resources to be used in education. As and addition to the EU requirement in increasing resources available to regional education systems, the Spanish government has been providing some regulations to be followed. For instance, there is demand that regions or schools receiving national aid must meet certain standards in their day to day activities. This is in the attempt to raise standards in the areas. Because the areas understand the importance of the help, they are more likely to follow national guidelines. In addition, members of the community being served by the schools receiving aid are provided with the powers to ensure that all is well in the management of government money.
Conclusion
As shown in concurrent section of this paper. Spain has indeed, had some great contributions to EU’s education system and the media sector. This has originated on its representatives insistence that education and media should receive as much attention at the EU level as trade issues, reason being that only through investment these two sectors that the region can withstand international competition in the near and far future. The EU has had greater influences, too, on the Spain. This has especially been directed to the development of better systems in the areas on the country that do not have enough monetary resources. In this regard, it can be said that relationship between the EU and Spain in terms of inter-influence has been mutually beneficial; its continuation will indeed make the larger Europe among the best places to learn and shape the future.
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