More graduates and more illiterates

The number of graduates in maths and science is increasing, yet the rate of school drop-outs remains high, especially in some countries, while too many children have difficulty in reading. The European Commission published on 19 April a study on the level of education in the 27: it’s a situation that has positive and negative sides, and that, according to the Commissioner for Education and Culture, Androulla Vassiliou, “requires further efforts from member states to reach our joint European targets”.Inadequate progress. “EU countries have improved their education systems in key areas over the past decade but they have achieved only one out of the five benchmarks set for 2010”, says the Cypriot EU Commissioner in presenting the EU education report. The Union “has succeeded in its target to increase the number of maths, science and technology graduates, with a 37% rise since 2000, easily outstripping the target of 15%”. According to Vassiliou, “significant progress” has also been made in other fields, but “insufficient progress was made on reducing the school drop-out rate, increasing the number of pupils completing upper secondary education, improving reading literacy skills and increasing the share of adults participating in education or training”. “The good news – she adds – is that education levels in Europe have risen considerably. More young people complete secondary education and graduate from higher education compared to ten years ago. But early school leaving continues to be a problem that affects one in seven young people in the EU and one in five still have poor reading skills at the age of 15”.“No cuts to education budgets”. Commissioner Vassiliou is therefore urging member states “not to make cuts in education budgets despite the constraints they face due to the economic crisis”. “Spending on education is a good investment for jobs and economic growth and in the long term pays for itself. But in times of budgetary pressures we also have to ensure that resources are used as efficiently as possible”, she adds. Five “education benchmarks” were adopted by EU ministers of education in 2009, to be attained by 2020 (also in relation to the Europe 2020 strategy for economic growth and social inclusion). First: the share of early leavers from education and training should be less than 10% (based on the current rate of 14.4%, this would means at least 1.7 million fewer school drop-outs). Second: the share of 30-34 year olds with tertiary educational attainment should be at least 40% (at the current rate of 32.3% that would mean an additional 2.6 graduates). Third: at least 95% of children between the age of four and the age of starting compulsory primary education should participate in early childhood education; the figure is now 92.3% (achieving the target would mean over 250,000 more young children in education). Fourth: the share of fifteen-year olds with insufficient abilities in reading, mathematics and science should be less than 15%, whereas now it is around 20% (achieving the target would mean 250,000 fewer low achievers). Fifth: an average of at least 15% of adults (age group 25-64) should participate in lifelong learning (the current share is 9.3%). “Achieving this target would mean 15 million more adults in education and training”.The next stages. On each of these points the Commission underlines the results obtained. On pre-school participation, the Executive indicates that it has increased by six percentage points since 2000. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain have the highest participation rates. On the improvement of reading skills and in mathematical and scientific disciplines there are signals that give good grounds for hope. Here one factor, though, needs to be reflected on: difficulties of reading among boys are almost double the rate of girls. Early school leavers, too, have declined in recent years; boys are more affected by the phenomenon than girls. The best results for efforts to reduce the number of early school leavers were attained in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. As regards university courses in maths and sciences, the number of graduates in the EU has increased by 37.2% since 2000, while the percentage of women graduates has risen from 30.7% al 32.6%. The most significant growth in the decade has been registered in Portugal and Slovakia. Vassiliou concludes with an eye to the future: “In the coming weeks, member states will submit their national reform programmes to the Commission, in which they will set national targets on early school leaving and higher education graduates, spelling out how they want to achieve their goals”. The Commission for its part will soon present proposed new benchmarks on employability and learning mobility.