Six million dropouts

More than six million young people in the age bracket 18-24 in the EU leave education and training with lower secondary level qualifications at best, according to a survey carried out by the EU Commission that was presented in Brussels on January 31st. The theme is addressed in the EU seat in order to prompt Member States to adopt initiatives aimed at promoting a high level of formation among the young generations. The problem. José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, said: “Europe cannot afford that so many young people who have the potential to contribute to our societies and our economies are left behind. We need to realise the potential of all young people in Europe in order to recover from the crisis”. The figures released by the Commission show that 14.4% of all students drop out before the end of secondary education (at 14-16 years-old), although in thousands and thousands of cases this level of education is not even achieved. A number of factors induce early school leave. These include: lower socio-economic status (thus the need to find a job) or belonging to vulnerable or even socially marginalized social groups. Remarkably, the rate of early school leaving in Europe is double for youth from migrant backgrounds. The figures. According to the survey 17% of school dropouts completed only primary education (ending at 10 years old), such cases are very frequent in Bulgaria and Portugal. In 2009 only 48% of early school leavers were employed, thus 52% were outside the labour market, notably Slovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary while considerable differences were registered across EU27. Seven Member States have already achieved the 10% benchmark: Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Three Member States have rates higher than 30%: Malta, Portugal and Spain. almost all countries have reduced their rates of early school leavers since 2000 while some countries with high rates have also achieved significant reductions: Romania, Malta, Italy, Cyprus and Portugal.The proposals. The Commission’s proposals will be discussed by Education Ministers during their Council meeting on 2-4 May in Brussels. 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’s document states, “Prevention of early school leaving needs to start as early as possible”; “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 highlights the importance of wide-ranging intervention measures, thus creating “favourable conditions” for helping students at risk of dropping out. Proposals should focus on providing support to families, creating an inclusive job market, preventing social marginalization and recovering degraded suburbs. It is possible to count on larger flow of investments for vocational training from the European Social Fund. According to the Commission: “Efficient strategies to reduce early school leaving must address education, youth and social policies. They need to be tailored to local, regional and national conditions”.More needs to be done. Early school leavers, the document points out, “face severe difficulties in finding work, are more often unemployed and more often dependent on welfare benefits”. Early school leaving “hampers economic and social development and is a serious obstacle to the European Union’s goal of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.” The Commission adopted a large-scale action plan that will help Member States implement measures aimed at achieving “the Europe 2020 headline target of reducing the EU average rate of early school leavers to under 10%”. The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, 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. Most EU countries have made progress in reducing the number of young people leaving school with low qualifications, but more needs to be done”.