Brussels, 31/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Early school leaving - when young people leave school at the minimum leaving age - hampers economic and social development and is a serious obstacle to the European Union's goal of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. On Monday 31 January, the European Commission announced an action plan that will help member states address this issue. Reducing the EU average rate of early school leavers to under 10% is one of the two EUROPE 2020 strategy objectives in education, the second being to increase the percentage of the population holding a university or higher education diploma to at least 40%. “Europe cannot afford that so many young people who have the potential to contribute to our societies and our economies are left behind”, said European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. European Education Commissioner added: “Reducing the share of early school leavers across Europe by just 1 percentage point would create nearly half a million additional qualified young people each year”.
The Commission's new initiative outlines the situation across Europe regarding early school leaving, its main causes, its risks for future economic and societal development, and proposes ways to tackle the problem more effectively. The accompanying proposal for a Council recommendation contains guidelines to help member states develop comprehensive and evidence-based policies.
Situation in the EU. The current EU-average (2009 figures) of 14.4% early school leavers is down from the 17.6% of 2000. Almost all countries have reduced their rates of early school leavers since then. This improvement cannot, however, conceal the huge task of taking the level down below 10% in the current post-crisis context with its spending cuts. Seven member states have already achieved the 10% benchmark: Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Three member states - Malta, Portugal and Spain - have rates above 30%. Some countries with high rates have also achieved significant reductions: Romania, Malta, Italy, Cyprus and Portugal. Considerable progress has also been achieved by countries which already had low rates of early school leaving at the beginning of the decade, such as Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland.
How to address the problem. To be effective, strategies to reduce early school leaving must address education, youth and social policies, they need to be tailored to local, regional and national conditions and they should include prevention, intervention and compensation measures. Prevention of early school leaving needs to start as early as possible by supporting children in their learning and by avoiding conditions which may trigger early leaving, such as making a pupil repeat a school year and failing to properly assist children with different mother-tongues. Intervention measures need to quickly and effectively address emerging difficulties such as truancy and low performance levels. Compensation measures need to offer “second chance” learning opportunities including additional classes in school and possibilities for young adults to re-enter education and training.
The Commission's proposals will be discussed by ministers at the Education Council meeting in Brussels on 2-4 May. Member states will be invited to adopt comprehensive strategies based on this framework by the end of 2012 and to implement them through their national reform programmes. The Commission will target funding through the Lifelong Learning Programme and the Research Framework Programme to create innovative ways to tackle the problem, and through the European Social Fund to finance national and regional measures to reduce early school leaving. (I.L./transl.rt)