Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU)

Who are we?

The Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU) is the platform for cooperation between the national school student unions active in general secondary and secondary vocational education in Europe. It was founded in April 1975 in Dublin, Ireland and brings together Member, Candidate and Affiliate Organisations from all over Europe. All Member Organisations are independent, national, representative and democratic school student organisations.
OBESSU’s Mission:
to represent the school students as stakeholders of their educational systems, and in issues concerning their lives;
to provide the national school student unions with assistance and support and to cooperate for the development of school student representative structures;
to encourage and enable exchange of experience and good practice among the national school students unions;
to promote equal access to education and to strive for the end of all discrimination and injustice within the educational systems;
to contribute to the development of democratic educational systems in Europe, that promote active citizenship in all forms;
to promote solidarity and understanding between young people;
to promote new teaching methods in learning and promote a healthy teaching environment.

Why we are Participating in the Project

OBESSU represents school students as relevant stakeholders of their educational systems and in issues concerning their lives. This core mission makes OBESSU relevant to the field of youth and education, as our mission is also to contribute to the development of democratic participation at all levels and promoting and fostering solidarity among young people. As one of the youngest groups among the “youth” group, school students’ organisations play a fundamental role in the non-formal and informal education of young people, by practising democracy and participation in the organisation and lobbying for change.

Our Role in the Project

OBESSU will lead WP4, with AHDE/MOE as co-lead. OBESSU has extensive experience working on capacity building and training material and has developed several toolkits aimed at inclusion, democratic participation, student organising & piloted a training course for teachers aimed at building inclusive learning environments. OBESSU will thus lead the development of the course and training materials, with the support of AHDE/MOE for whom digital education & training are the core areas of work.All other partners will contribute content to the course and materials.KIC will coordinate the transfer of the course to the online platform.
Furthermore, OBESSU will be leading the process (Activity 3) where the consortium will transform the main findings from WP2, WP3 & WP4 into a policy document that will detail recommendations for inclusive student engagement specifically aimed at the VET sector. The policy document will be published and disseminated widely among relevant local, national and European stakeholders.

Our Team