Brussels, 03/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - Member states continued to improve in 2006 but there is insufficient overall progress in Europe's education and training systems towards the goals set in the Lisbon strategy. This is the main finding of the of the European Commission's annual report on progress towards the Lisbon objectives in the field of education and training, which was published on Wednesday 3 October, in the light of the progress accomplished by each of the EU27 on five education benchmarks agreed by them for 2010.
Too many early school leavers: Target: cut the number of early school leavers by 10%
(18-24 years old, 2000 starting point). Last year about six million young people left education prematurely in the EU (average of 15.3%). This would need to drop by two million if the benchmark of no more than 10% early school leavers is to be reached. The best performing EU countries were the Czech Republic (5.5%), Poland (5.6%) and Slovakia (6.4%).
2) Graduates from upper secondary school are needed: Target: In order to achieve the EU benchmark of an 85% upper-secondary school completion rate by 2010, an additional 2 million young people (aged 20-24 years) would need to finish upper-secondary education. In this area the Commission again indicates that the best-performing EU countries are the Czech Republic (91.8%), Poland (91.7%) and Slovakia (91.5%).
3) Mathematics, science, and technology graduates: Target: increase the number of students in this area by 15%. This means increasing the number of graduates in these subjects by 170,000 since 2000. If present trends continue, over 1 million students will graduate in mathematics, science and technology (MST) in the EU in 2010, compared to the present (2005) level of 860 000 graduates per year. One downside, however, is that only 31.2% of these students are girls. The best-performing countries in terms of MST graduates per 1 000 young people (20-29) are: Ireland (24.5), France (22.5), and Lithuania (18.9). Last year's best performing countries were Slovakia (14.7%), Poland (12.1%) and Portugal (13.1%).
4) Participation in lifelong learning activities by adults: Target: reach 12.5% participation rate (level in 2000: 7.1%). An additional 8 million adults would need to participate in lifelong learning within any four week period in 2010 if the EU benchmark of 12.5% is to be achieved. Progress in 2006 was insufficient, with a rate of 9.6%. The best-performing EU countries in 2006: Sweden (32.1% in 2005), Denmark (29.2%) and the United Kingdom (26.6%).
5) Literacy levels of 15-year-olds: Target: reduce the number of young people having reading difficulties by 20% (2000 level: 19.4%). Almost no progress in 2003 (most recent figures available) when the figure stood at 19.8%. About one in every five 15-year-old pupils is presently a poor reader. To reach the benchmark would need a further 200 000 pupils to improve their standard of reading. The best-performing EU countries are: Finland (5.7%), Ireland (11%) and the Netherlands (11.5%).
The report underlines that as well as these five benchmarks, there are other indicators that that the pace of reforms in education should be accelerated. For example, most EU school pupils are not yet taught at least two foreign languages from an early age, as requested by the Barcelona 2002 European Council. At present (2003 data), an average of only 1.4 and 1.5 foreign languages per pupil are taught in the member states, in general lower- and upper-secondary education respectively. Moreover, the financing and efficiency of educational systems remain of high concern. Studies repeatedly show that the most effective area to increase investment is in pre-primary education. The target is to reach a rate of 90% by 2010. Currently at the top of the class are France, Belgium, Spain and Italy with rates close to 100%. As regards higher education, although public investment in education and training as a percentage of GDP has grown markedly since the adoption of the Lisbon strategy (from 4.7% to 5.1% of GDP), progress has stalled in recent years and the EU would need to more than double the amount it invests per tertiary-level student (i.e. an increase of around € 10 000 per year) to match the spending level in the USA. This shortfall consists almost entirely of private investment. Ján Figel', European Commissioner for Education, Training and Culture, said that “…member states need to redouble their efforts to make the EU's education and training meet the challenges of the 21st century. The message to policy makers in the member states is clear: we need more efficient investment in our human capital." Full report available at: (http: //ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/objectives_en.html#measuring). (il)