Annual Report on Education Systems in the EU Confirms Slow but Steady Progress
In July, the European Commission presented the latest data on Member States' progress towards the 2010 goals they have set themselves for their education systems under the Lisbon Strategy. This annual "indicators and benchmarks" report looks at each individual country's performances in key areas such as completion of secondary education, school dropout rates, low achievers in reading literacy, graduates in mathematics, science, and technology, and the participation of adults in lifelong learning activities. The key finding of the 2008 report is that overall Europe is making progress in all five areas - with the exception of low achievers in reading. However, although education and training has been improving slowly but steadily in EU Member States since 2000, progress needs to be faster in almost all areas in order to reach the 2010 targets.
At the presentation of the report, Ján Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture, and Youth, said "Almost one-third of the European workforce has the equivalent of lower secondary schooling, and around a quarter of Europe's 15-year-olds have low reading skills. As we develop as a knowledge-based society in an intensely competitive globalizing world environment, these millions of Europeans will find it increasingly hard to fully flourish, let alone find employment. That is why I welcome the fact that the Member States have acknowledged the crucial role that education and training play in the future of our societies, both economically and socially. The Member States have launched long-term processes of reforms, and although progress towards their targets is slow, it is mostly going in the right direction. Much work still needs to be done, and the Commission is happy to continue facilitating cooperation and collaboration in this field."
The 2008 report is based on a coherent framework of sixteen core indicators and five benchmarks in education, which were adopted by the Council (Education) in 2007. The results are meant to provide strategic guidance for "Education and Training 2010," the mechanism through which Member States are working to achieve the broad common objectives they have set for their education and training systems under the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs.
Education and training in the EU Member States has been improving slowly but steadily since 2000. The good news is that overall performance in the European Union is on a par with the best in the world.
However, while progress has been made in four of the five benchmarks, in the benchmark for low achievers in reading, there was actually deterioration over recent years. All countries have relative strengths and weaknesses across the benchmark areas and there are significant divergences between Member States and fields.
Click here (PDF) to read the full text of the report.
