Brussels, 22/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 19 November, the Council adopted conclusions appealing for the improvement of basic skills as part of European cooperation in the field of education in the 21st century. The Council rather alarmingly pointed out that although the strategic European cooperation framework for education and occasional training had set out five new benchmarks in 2003, with regard to the acquisition of basic skills for pupils up to 2020, only one target had actually been reached, on reducing underachieving in mathematics, science and technology. The situation had even deteriorated in the context of skills for basic language skills. Pascal Smet, the Belgian minister, emphasised that “this is rather worrying… there is still a lot of work to do”. The European commissioner for education and training, Androulla Vassiliou, admitted that it was discouraging that “the number of these failing children is continually increasing”. In an effort to move forward, Vassiliou announced that in January a senior group would be set up to examine what resources would be most effective for strengthening reading skills. This group will produce proposals on taking action in the first half of 2012. The commissioner affirmed: “I hope that with the assistance of our experts we will be able to develop a hopeful outlook for the future and reach the targets set out in the EUROPE 2020 strategy”. In its conclusions, the Council stated that sufficient measures were required for fulfilling the reference criteria. The Council also highlights several areas requiring further attention, such as programme development, promoting interest in reading, the impact of new technology and the gender dimension. (I.L./transl.fl)