European ministers of education and youth policies, meeting at San Patrignano (Italy) in recent days, fixed a new priority for the EU: halving by 2010 the rate of school drop outs, the European average of which has now reached 19%. A strategy of six guidelines was formulated at the meeting: prevention of the causes that lead to pupils dropping out of school, with the intervention of teaching staff and experts; integration of education policies with social policies; promotion at school of tutoring and ongoing vocational guidance for the young; exchange of good practices between European Administrations and Institutes; personalization of the curriculum; recognition of the drop-out phenomenon as a European priority to which a sufficient budget needs to be assigned.
