3.2. France – Réunion

form the framework of Danish youth policy. Whilst the Ministry for Children, Education and Gender Equality does not have any national youth policy, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science has however identified the European Commission’s youth programmes to be in line with their principles. In this regards, the Ministry is acting as the National Agency for the European Commission’s programmes for youth: Erasmus + programme (2014 – 2020), and it was for the preceding ‘Youth’ (1997- 2007) and ‘Youth in Action Programme’ (2007 – 2013), as it is referenced in The Youth Policy Article 2008:

The activities of the Youth Programme fit in with the structures of the non-formal Danish educational system and have promoted internationalization and offered participants opportunities they would otherwise not have received. Activities have been complementary to the national system.

Whilst it has been identified that there are no governmental policies or Ministries directly relating to or responsible for youth affairs and youth education, there are however national entities who are solely engaged in achieving a set of objectives regarding youth affairs and education.

The Danish Youth Council (hereafter DUF) as such an entity. DUF is a national umbrella organisation representing 70 organisations that work with over 600,000 children and young people. They distribute state funding for youth and deliver a range of youth programmes including politics, scouting, religion, environment, youth clubs, theatre, exchange and international projects. DUF distributes over DKK 100 million (13€ million) annually to youth projects. DUF is a member of the European Youth Forum. In addition, DUF is a member of The Network of Youth Councils (NAU). The funds distributed by DUF are obtained from the national lottery, various national ministries and the European Unon.

Conclusion:

Despite youth work is very well established as concept in Denmark, there is no clear definition of youth work. Also, the term youth work is not clearly translated into Danish context, becoming confusing. There is no governmental body that has prime responsibility for youth affairs. Instead, Denmark has an integrated youth policy approach, measures coming throughout government and across different national, regional and local authorities. The Danish Governments general approach to youth education and development is an adoption of EU policies in the youth field. Non-Governmental youth organisations are often focused upon reacting to a very narrow niche need regarding young people. Other youth NGOs typically have a set of values, principles or beliefs which they aim to promote amongst young people.

3 . 2 . F R AN C E – R É U NI O N

The French law states that the family is the sole body responsible for the education of children and this is based upon a long tradition related to education in France. There is a distinction between informal education within the family and formal education in the public school system.

Formal education is carried out mostly in public schools and for one out of five kids is the private school. In the same time we allocate a high importance to the way which a child uses his time outside the classroom outside the school and this is very important for his success in school as well as for the development of the character and learning how to be an active member of the society.

Organising the informal time of children and young people outside the school, promoting support for development, especially for those children with less access to educational and cultural activities is considered important in France.

CEMEA emerged from the new education movement, and represents an important promoter of the humanistic values connected in France with popular education. CEMEA questioned all those who tend to give the schools system an exclusive role in the overall education, considering this approach as wrong, since it focuses only on the school system, taking in consideration only child as pupil, and not the child as a human being.

In France the non-formal and informal educational activities are defined in relation with the school (périscolaire); or within the school and outside of the official school timetable (extrascolaire). The terminology itself reveals the importance of the formal educational system and the fact that in some situation the non-formal education activities play a secondrate role in education. The extra curricular activities are considered complementary to the school system.

Here is fhe definition of the two concepts according to an official text issued in 1998 in France:

“périscolaire" is the time just before or after school; the time during the journey to school, or whilst waiting for the lessons to begin, between lessons, supervised homework, school tutorship, sports and cultural activities, afternoons

"extrascolaire" means evenings, Wednesdays if there is no school, weekends and holidays. These activities cannot be fully labelled as non-formal and informal education even tough the methodology is related to non-formal education.

In the public debate related to education in France, both psychologist and educators agree on the importance in allowing children and young people to have time to play, to reflect, to dream and generally to have time for themselves.

The role of the non-formal education is important also in supporting the school attendance and awareness related the importance of education.

The non-formal education is meant to be complementary to the formal education and to the family. The educational offer in terms of non-formal education activities is very rich and organized by various bodies and structures, both public and private. In the last years the challenges are related to reductions of budgets allocated to non formal education at national level, but still different organizations sustain the nonformal education offer.

In France, there are training offers for those aiming to become a social worker or youth worker. This is mandatory to get involved in non-formal education organizations. So called "Popular education associations" allow the development of non-formal skills, such as the key competencies of the European Union. The non-profit and youth-oriented associations were under the supervision of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Social Cohesion until 2016. Since 2017, the Ministry of Education is in charge of youth policies, and Regional Directorates of Youth, Sports and Social Cohesion have been maintained. National, regional, local and European funding enables the structures to develop their educational activities, even if the drop in subsidies is notorious.