The European Commission has announced that they will fund the international costs for Erasmus+ Countries to participate in the IEA International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2023. The initiative is being led by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture (EAC) Executive Agency and the funding is expected to be available from 2020.
The Commission released the following statement:
“The European Commission highly recognises the value of the IEA ICILS study as an important contribution to the evidence base for development of European education policies. EU Member States and Erasmus+ programme countries are highly encouraged to participate in the upcoming cycle of the study, ICILS 2023, to maximize cross-national comparability of results. The European Commission will support participating EU Member States and Erasmus+ programme countries with funding up to a total of 75% of international costs to the IEA.“
Commenting on the decision, IEA Executive Director, Dirk Hastedt said
“We are delighted for ICILS 2023 to receive this generous support from the European Commission. The funding will create a valuable opportunity for even more countries to find out how well their students are prepared for study, work and life in our digital world. IEA enjoys a close working relationship with the European Commission on a variety of projects and I would like to thank them for their continued support”.
ICILS 2023 is the third cycle of the study, following 2013 and 2018. In addition to measuring international differences in students’ computer and information literacy skills, countries participating in ICILS 2023 have the option for their students to complete an assessment of computational thinking and approaches to writing software programs and applications. Registration for ICILS 2023 will open soon, countries are invited to contact IEA for further details.
The ICILS 2018 results will be released on 5th November 2019.