EU Guidelines on Preparedness Education: We turn to education in every crisis; why don't we invest in it before one?
Last week at the European Civil Protection Forum, the European Commission has announced the publication of the EU Guidelines on Preparedness Education (covering only early childhood education and care, pre-primary and primary education) as part of the Guidelines on Population Preparedness under the EU Preparedness Strategy package. This guidance has been developed to support policymakers and national, regional, and local authorities to implement this action and to support educators to embed preparedness across children's everyday routine and normal learning agenda.
ETUCE was consulted during the development of the both EU Guidelines and World Bank Study and welcomed the opportunity to bring the perspective of education trade unions into the process. While ETUCE welcomes certain aspects of the Guidelines, including the the cross-curriculum and whole-school approaches to integrated preparedness in education, as well as the acknowledgement of the role and professional autonomy of education personnel, it remains concerned about the broader concept underpinning the initiative. Too often, policymakers look to education systems for solutions when societies face crises, while overlooking the chronic underfunding, unsustainable teacher shortages, increasing workloads and ageing infrastructure that weaken schools' capacity to respond in the first place. In many regions, school buildings remain poorly equipped to cope with increasingly frequent climate-related challenges, including extreme temperatures. From ETUCE's perspective, preparedness cannot become another responsibility added to already overstretched education systems without addressing the structural conditions necessary for schools and education personnel to succeed.
ETUCE further underlines that preparedness is also a matter of equality. Schools and communities facing the highest levels of social and economic vulnerability often have the fewest resources available to implement new priorities. For preparedness policies to be effective and equitable, they must be accompanied by targeted public investment and additional support for disadvantaged schools and learners.
At the same time, ETUCE stresses that preparedness must be understood primarily as an educational project, rather than as an emergency-management exercise transferred to schools. Education already contributes to preparedness by fostering critical thinking, democratic citizenship, solidarity, problem-solving, digital literacy and sustainability competences that help learners navigate a wide range of crises and societal challenges.
The success of preparedness education will ultimately depend not only on new policy frameworks but on governments' willingness to invest in high-quality public education systems. Sustainable funding, attractive working conditions, climate-resilient school infrastructure and meaningful social dialogue are essential preconditions for building resilience in schools and societies alike. Without addressing these foundations, preparedness risks remaining more of a policy slogan than a practical reality.
