The mental health and well-being of children in European Schools (ESS) should be a top priority for the European Schools as well as for the European institutions. Nevertheless, many parents within our community have raised serious concerns about the lack of psychological support, insufficient supervision, and how the system fails to address emotional distress among students.
Most children in the European School system spend over 14 years (ages 4-18) there. As with all formal education, this experience shapes their self-esteem, emotional development, and social interactions. However, without proper mental-health support, intervention strategies, and sufficient staff, too many children struggle in silence, leaving families desperate and helpless.
As Generation 2004, we are calling for urgent reforms to ensure that every child in European Schools receives the emotional and psychological care they need. The issues have been identified, what is being done to address them?
‘Throughout this study on the ESS, students’ well-being also emerged as a sensitive topic – parents, pupils and teachers reported several issues that negatively impacted pupils’ mental health, such as bullying, drug abuse or a lack of human resources as well as insufficient attention and time provided by teachers or supporting staff to help pupils deal with emotional problems they faced.’ European Parliament, June 2022: The European Schools system: State of Play, Challenges and Perspectives.
- The Psychological Crisis in European Schools
Mental health issues among children and adolescents are increasingly prevalent, yet the European School system is unprepared and unable to address them appropriately. Parents have reported:
- Inadequate psychological support in primary school, where intervention is most crucial for emotional development.
- A significant reduction in the number of school psychologists, with responsibilities shifting to school assistants under the KiVa project – an initiative that, while well-intended, does not replace professional psychological support.
- A lack of proactive measures, leaving parents to cope with their children’s struggles alone.
‘… despite all measures put in place to alleviate mental health issues for students, many of them faced serious mental health-related/emotional challenges during the pandemic. According to interviewed students’ representatives as well as several parents’ associations, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the already ongoing mental health crisis in the ESS context (Lalova & Molnárfi 2020), which is very competitive and largely centred around academic success.’ European Parliament, June 2022
A concerned parent shared:
“My child has a complex situation in the class particularly due to his emotionality. The school psychologist was never involved to foster a better class environment leaving us confused and without real solutions. When I think back, school psychologists used to assist classes with difficult situations. Now, that responsibility has been shifted to a school assistant under the KiVa project—far from enough to address serious emotional and psychological needs.”
This is not an isolated case!
More and more children are experiencing anxiety, emotional distress, and social difficulties with nowhere to turn. The 2022 European Parliament report (p. 107) highlighted that the inflexible administration of the European Schools makes it nearly impossible for families to seek tailored psychological support for children in need.
The Parliament reports praise the positives, such as language learning, but also put forward realistic and constructive proposals for the less positive aspects. The proposals call for a greater involvement of the Commission, in particular DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (EAC). The Parliament asks the Commission to expand its role and activities within the European Schools and, among other suggestions, to review the governance of the schools in order to proactively identify issues. This is reflected in the corresponding draft proposal for a resolution by the European Parliament.
- School Supervision and Social Well-being of Pupils
A school should be a safe and supportive space for children, yet many pupils experience isolation, bullying, and anxiety due to insufficient supervision, particularly during break times.
- Break periods are often not adequately supervised, and when incidents occur, teachers frequently do not take responsibility and struggle to understand/find out what happened.
- Social labels imposed in primary school follow children for years, as rigid class composition prevents students from changing peer groups.
- Children experiencing bullying or emotional distress have no option to switch class groups – their only alternative is to leave the school entirely, a drastic and disruptive measure.
One parent described the reality:
“The biggest problem is how the school manages break times—most incidents happen there, yet teachers don’t take responsibility. In primary school, children are quickly labelled as ‘too shy’ or ‘too excited,’ and these labels stick with them for years. If a child struggles socially, their only option is to change schools—not classes. Imagine spending 14 years in an environment where you feel trapped and powerless.”
The consequences of neglecting emotional and social well-being are severe. Without early intervention, childhood struggles escalate into long-term mental health issues.
Generation 2004 Calls for Change!
The European Schools system must evolve to protect the mental health and well-being of students. We demand the following urgent reforms:
✅Increasing the number of School Psychologists in Primary and Secondary Education – Every school must have qualified psychologists actively involved in pupil support, not just in administrative roles.
✅ Better Supervision and Emotional Support – Increased staff presence during break times and in classrooms to monitor and prevent social conflicts and emotional distress.
✅ More Flexibility in Class Changes – Children struggling with social or emotional issues should not have to change schools – they should be able to change class groups within the same institution.
✅ Addressing the Teacher Shortage – Immediate recruitment efforts to ensure smaller class sizes, individualized attention, and less overburdened teachers who can prioritize student well-being.
✅ Stronger Parent-School Collaboration – Parents must have a real voice in shaping school policies related to psychological support and student well-being. The Parliament also wants a review of the governance of the schools in order to proactively identify issues.
✅ Address lack of proper support for students with disabilities or special education needs. It is quite disconcerting to read comments by respondents who state that, as parents, they had to take their children out of a school because, despite inclusive education being “the guiding principle of the European Schools”, their school failed to practice it.
✅ Address structural overcrowding and the physical environement.
‘…Almost all stakeholders emphasised that the
structural overcrowding and lack of appropriate common spaces adversely impacts pupils’ wellbeing and mental health, and in turn, their readiness to learn’European Parliament, June 2022
We cannot afford to wait for another crisis before acting. We must prioritize our children’s’ mental health now!
As a community, we must push for immediate changes to ensure that our children grow up in a safe, supportive, and emotionally healthy school environment.
Our children’s Mental Health Matters!
If you share our concerns or have personal experiences to contribute, we invite you to join us in demanding a better, more compassionate educational system for our children.
Together, we can ensure that the European Schools are a place where all children thrive – not only academically, but emotionally and socially as well.
As always, we would love to hear from you. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us or leave a comment below.
If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004.
