Six million young Europeans left education systems prematurely in 2006 despite an EU goal, agreed in 2002, to lower the figure to two million, according to the Commission's 2007 progress report on the Lisbon objectives for education and training.
Education and lifelong learning has been identitified as a core element of the EU's growth and jobs strategy, also known as the 'Lisbon Agenda'. "Young people who leave school with only lower secondary education are at a disadvantage on the labour market in today’s knowledge-based society," the Commission explained.
"On the two benchmarks which target participation in school education (early school leavers and completion of upper secondary education), strong performances are found in the new member states," the report found out.
For early school leavers, this includes Poland (5.6%), the Czech Republic (5.5%) and Slovenia (5.2%), the report said. By contrast, Malta and Portugal had the highest proportions of early school leavers in the EU (41.7% and 39.2% respectively). Bulgaria and Romania also scored relatively bad (18.0% and 19.0%).
Moreover, the number of Europeans aged 25 to 64 who take part in education and training activities has decreased in 2006. In order to reach the Lisbon target, eight million more adults would need to participate in lifelong learning, according to the Commission.
On the positive side, the report says member states have succeeded in meeting the target for students graduating in science, mathematics and technology. They have even exceeded the benchmark, with 860,000 graduates per year in total. The best performers are Ireland, France and Lithuania.
Each year, the Commission assesses the progress of member states in the area of education and training with regard to the Lisbon Strategy's goals. It uses 16 indicators, including participation in pre-school education, the number of higher education graduates, ICT skills, and investment in education and training with regard to five benchmarks agreed by member states and to be achieved by 2010:
- No more than 10% of students should leave school early (aged 18-24);
- A decrease of at least 20% in the percentage of underachieving pupils in reading literacy;
- At least 85% of young people should have completed upper secondary education;
- An increase of 15% in the number of tertiary graduates in mathematics, science and technology, with a simultaneous decrease in the gender imbalance; and;
- 12.5% of adults should participate in lifelong learning.
