Maria van der Hoeven Minister of Education, Culture and Science Maria Josephina Arnoldina (Maria) van der Hoeven was born in Meerssen on 13 September 1949. After completing her secondary education she was trained as a primary teacher in Maastricht. She subsequently obtained a secondary teaching certificate in English, after which she attended courses in higher management for non-profit organisations at the Institute of Social Sciences and business management at the Open University in Heerlen. From 1969 she taught at schools of home economics and, from 1971, at a junior secondary commercial school, where she subsequently became a school counsellor. Until 1987 she was head of the Adult Commercial Vocational Training Centre in Maastricht, after which she served as the head of the Limburg Technology Centre until 1991. From 1991 to 2002 Ms Van der Hoeven was a member of the House of Representatives of the States General for the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA). She has held a variety of social and cultural posts, including membership of the governing board of the the Maastricht College of Higher Professional Education and of the Southern Dutch Opera Association, and chairmanship of the St Nicholas Catholic Association of Bargees.

Learning from each other: learning to live together starts at school

Why is Unesco important?

• Dealing with the impact of global trends on educational systems takes a long policy cycle. Unesco provides a platform for setting the agenda and serves as a laboratory of ideas, knowledge and good practice.
• Unesco has played an effective role in raising awareness of the social cohesion deficit. The forum that introduced the problem onto the education agenda was the World Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, chaired by Jacques Delors.
  The term Learning to live together has since been used in numerous international conferences and international organizations.

Learning to live together starts at school: what is important?

• Schools have a key role in strengthening education for active citizenship, social cohesion, including with regard to immigrants.
• Teachers’ commitment, attitude and skills are crucial.
• Key competences must be developed (handling diversity, conflict resolution, involvement, having and handling opinions/communication, tolerance, community participation, democratic participation).
• We must (further) identify the aspects to be included in learning to live together. In doing that, we must not try to seek one model. Important elements are: hidden curriculum, cross curricular and extra curricular activities, pedagogical and didactical approaches, interactive education, early start, involvement of parents and environment.
• A wide variety of practices in learning to live together is available to be exchanged.

Learning from each other

• Numerous initiatives have already been developed in the context of the European Union, the Council of Europe and Unesco;
• Intensified cooperation between these organisations would more effectively raise awareness among citizens and stakeholders, and facilitate monitoring the progress.