O lume minunata

There is insufficient overall progress in Europe’s education and training systems towards the goals set in the Lisbon strategy for more jobs and growth. This is the main finding of the 2007 edition of the European Commission’s annual report on progress towards the Lisbon objectives in the field of education and training, which is published today. The report charts progress since 2000 in the light of key indicators and focuses on five education benchmarks agreed by the Member States. On the positive side, the number of tertiary-level maths, science and technology graduates continues to increase. However, progress was only moderate for the other benchmarks

The main findings of the report include:

• There are still too many early school leavers: In 2006, about six million young people (18-24 years old) left education prematurely in the EU. 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%).
• More graduates from upper secondary school are needed: 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 best-performing EU countries are the Czech Republic (91.8%), Poland (91.7%) and Slovakia (91.5%).
• The EU has succeeded in meeting the target for mathematics, science, and technology graduates: 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. These levels already exceed the benchmark. 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.
• There is insufficient participation in lifelong learning activities by adults: 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% participation rate is to be achieved. The best-performing EU countries are (2006): Sweden (32.1% in 2005), Denmark (29.2%) and the United Kingdom (26.6%).
• Improvements are needed in literacy levels of fifteen year-olds: About one in every five 15-year-old pupils in the EU 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%).

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