General Assembly of the International Association for Christian Education elects new President

General Assembly of the International Association for Christian Education elects new President

Invited by the Union of Private Protestant Schools in Estonia, the annual General Assembly of the International Association for Christian Education (IV) took place from November 23 to 24, 2018 in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. A warm reception by the hosting organization included a word of welcome by the Archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Estonia, Urmas Vilmas. This created a very communicative setting for the 35 participants from 12 countries. Dr Jacomijn van der Kooij in her presentation introduced from a Dutch perspective “Contributions of Christian Schools to Solidarity in Society” and encouraged a rich debate. Dr Peter Schreiner mentioned in his contribution crucial elements of the cooperation between IV and ICCS, e.g. the common commitment to a European integration and the promotion of a horizontal-based Europeanisation through cooperation and exchange of experts in Christian-based education. School visits to a Protestant and to an Orthodox primary school as well as a guided city tour with a lot of historical and political information enriched the program.

At the statutory part of the general assembly the proposed change to the name did not find a sufficient majority. So the well-known name and the acronym “IV” stays. The Protestant School Association A.B. Vienna, sponsoring association of nine different schools, was accepted as a new member and welcomed.

The General Assembly also elected a new President. Piet Jansen (63) is chairman of the board of SCOPE school group and of the Catholic Foundation Ashram College. SCOPE school group is a foundation for (Protestant) Christian primary, special and secondary education with 21 schools and over 6000 students. The Catholic foundation Ashram College provides secondary education for about 2000 students at two schools. The board has the task of realizing a merger between the two foundations in the next two years. Both organizations are members of Verus, the Association for Catholic and Christian Education in the Netherlands.