Adventist Education―A Strategic Field for the EUD

For the 2015-2020 quinquennium, the EUD administration proposed and the executive committee voted that Adventist education should be considered one of the division’s strategic areas of emphasis by adopting the following top priorities:           

1. To provide greater access to Adventist education (both to Adventists and the general population) with emphasis on primary through secondary levels,having as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) an increased number of kindergartens, elementary, and secondary schools close to densely populated areas.
   In seeking to achieve this objective, one of the most visionary decisions was the division’s approval of a five-million-Euro financial grant for the development of primary- and secondary-education institutions for the period 2018 to 2022.

2. To operate education institutions as community-service and outreach endeavors,having as a KPI to ensure that our existing education institutions are centers of influence for their communities. To help primary- and secondary-education institutions develop their missionary potential, the division voted to support the schools that are struggling to meet current expenses, especially those that do not receive any financial support from the state, by giving them an operating fund.

3. To address the viability of theological training institutions, having as aKPI to use the human and financial resources of the existing theological institutions as efficiently as possible.

In order to foster professional excellence in ministerial training and practice, the EUD Board of Ministerial and Theological Education (BMTE) has defined an appropriate curriculum for pastoral education and has outlined common criteria for employment in our territory. In addition to this, the EUD BMTE is seeking to help theology students achieve a better understanding of their calling and of what pastoral ministry entails: a higher level of maturity to tackle questions and issues as they relate to real-life situations, as well as a clearer focus on the practical aspects of ministry and the way theological issues impact mission. In order to reach this goal, the EUD BMTE members have drafted and voted a Core Curriculum Content for Ministerial and Theological Education in the Inter-European Division, with a significantly increased emphasis on topics relating to practical theology.

To meet the demands for the ongoing training of the Adventist school staff, during the current quinquennium (2015-2020), we have organized training courses for presidents/directors, business managers, fundraisers, Bible teachers, chaplains, cooks, librarians, dormitory deans, and Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools (AAA) team members.  The division also co-organized other events, such as the biennial Convention of the European Theology Teachers (ETTC) in partnership with the Trans-European and Euro-Asia divisions and different schools of theology, and, through its representatives, it joined meetings that facilitated thematic knowledge and dialogue among teachers, such as conventions for teachers in Germany, Romania, and Spain.

The Growing Demand for Adventist Primary and Secondary Education

            Despite the relatively small number of primary and secondary schools in the EUD, they are on the upswing both in terms of the quality of the education offered and enrollment. Moreover, they have had many bold, visionary ideas of how the school idea was born and came alive in the respective area or in the institution, as well as visionary ideas for the future. Space limitations allow for only one example from each union having primary and secondary schools:

• Austrian Union―The new building of the local church in Bogenhofen reserved enough room for a primary school, which it currently manages, when a new campus building was being planned;

• Bulgarian Union―In 2019, the first education project (a kindergarten) was begun through the initiative of a group of young lay people, with the support of union leadership;

• Czecho-Slovakian Union―The first Adventist school in Prague, which provides primary and secondary education, has just gone through the first AAA accreditation process. The project was boldly initiated in the capital of the third least religious country in the world5 by a businessman who offered the church a completely renovated and properly equipped building for this purpose;

• Franco-Belgian Union―In the courtyard of the well-known Faculty of Theology in Collonges, France, a highly regarded primary and secondary-level school is currently operating;

• North German Union―In the very secular territory of the former German Democratic Republic, the church in Oranienburg operates a primary- and secondary-level school. Recently the North-German Union has invested two million Euros for a new building;

• Portuguese Union―Setubal Primary School offers classes for students in four different grades using two classrooms that also host the children’s Sabbath school on Saturdays. Their daily devotions are held in the potluck room of the local church;

• Romanian Union―Three years ago, Excelsis School in Ploiești opened, with 38 students, in a space that had been purchased and decorated by the local conference. Since then, it has doubled its enrollment each school year;

• South German Union―Rastatt Adventist School carries out its teaching activities in a former public school provided by the local town hall;

• Spanish Union of Churches Conference―Due to extreme lack of space, one of the oldest Adventist schools in Spain, Urgell―Barcelona, ​built a large sports field on the roof of the local church;

• Swiss Union―The Adventist school (K-9) in Zurich is enjoying the results of an initiative of the German Swiss Conference, which decided to build new headquarters that would house three institutions: the local church, the regional conference, and the Adventist school.

Currently, the Adventist Church in the EUD runs 76 kindergartens and elementary schools, 31 secondary schools and three work-training schools (nursing schools). In addition, we also have eight tertiary-level institutions in our territory (mentioned in order of their founding): Friedensau Adventist University, Friedensau, Germany (1899); Czecho-Slovakian Union Adventist Theological Institute, Sazava, the Czech Republic (1920); Adventist University of France, Collonges-sous-Salève,  France (1921); Adventus University, (formerly Romanian Adventist Theological Institute) Cernica, Romania (1924);  Italian Adventist University Villa Aurora, Florence, Italy (1940); Sagunto Adventist College, Sagunto (Valencia), Spain (1942); Bulgarian Theological Seminary, Sofia, Bulgaria (1948), temporarily closed; and Bogenhofen Seminary, Bogenhofen, Austria (1949). Four of them are founders and beneficiaries of the international Adventist Colleges Abroad (ACA) program, which brings to our schools students from around the world who are interested in foreign languages and cultures (French is taught at Collonges, France; German at Bogenhofen, Austria, and Friedensau, Germany; Italian at Villa Aurora in Florence, Italy; and Spanish at Sagunto, Spain).

Report Card

Challenges  

During the 2015-2020 quinquennium, Adventist education in the EUD has achieved significant progress in both concept and image even if quantifiable results are still a work in progress. The relatively small number of members (that is the second-smallest Adventist population of any division) diminishes the ability of the church to mobilize dramatically and create a rapid impact; the impressive cultural diversity prevents the church from addressing people using a unitary message; the generally negative birth rate steadily decreases the school-age population that could be enrolled in our schools; free or state-subsidized education seems much more attractive to many, taking into account the cost of private church education; the relatively small number of study programs (both at secondary and tertiary level) makes our schools less attractive than others; the better remuneration offered by the state or other private educational institutions prevents us from increasing the number of qualified Adventist teachers; and, last but not least, convincing church members, pastors, and parents that Adventist educational institutions have high academic standards is a battle that we fight on a daily basis.

Progress

Despite these obvious and seemingly insurmountable barriers, EUD schools continue to develop conceptually, train holistically, grow numerically, and have a significant impact on the general population. For example, the overwhelming majority of our primary and secondary schools have the main part of their students coming from different religious traditions (other than Seventh-day Adventists); have either reached their maximum admission capacity or have significantly increased their enrollment; have long waiting lists; and have fulfilled the legal requirements for receiving state accreditation.