Abstract

After World War II there was a push to reinvigorate the economies and industries of Western Europe, and to find methods to avoid the outbreak of more wars in the region. As a result, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was founded in 1952 (European Coal and Steel Community, 2016) an important step towards the full European Union (EU), led by the French bureaucrat and diplomat Jean Monnet (Jean Monnet, 2016). On the initiative of the officials of the ESCS, the European Schools (ES) system was established in Luxembourg in 1953 as a means of providing their children with an education in their mother tongue and with a similar curriculum to their home countries (Savvides, 2006b), leading to a European Baccalaureate which was recognized by all of the member states. Since that time, a total of 14 ES have been established in 7 different countries, financed and administered by the EU, and since 2005, a further 11 Accredited European Schools have been established which offer the same curricula and accreditation, but who are administered by the host nation (Schola Europea, n.d. a)