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Educational reform in the EU, 2 new reports show to slow progress
25 november 2009

Despite a general improvement in education and training performance in the EU, progress is too slow, which means that the majority of the reform targets set for 2010 will not be reached. The economic downturn underlines the urgency of reform and continuous targeted investment in education and training systems to meet core economic and social challenges. These are the main conclusions from two reports on the progress of education reforms and European co-operation presented by the European Commission today.
The European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, Maroš Šefčovič, said: "Improving our education and training systems is a must if we want to develop the EU into a dynamic, knowledge-based, cohesive society with more and better jobs and growth. Education reforms in the EU have come a long way, but we must not lose momentum now. In particular, we need more and better investment in education and training, so that Europeans are better prepared to find jobs, and to increase our ability to innovate in the long term."

The Commission Progress report towards the Lisbon Objectives in Education and Training - Indicators and Benchmarks 2009 is an annual report looking at progress in the Member States, in particular towards five key benchmarks in education and training for 2010, which had been agreed in 2002 by education ministers and the European Commission.

The Draft 2010 joint progress report on the implementation of the work programme "Education and Training 2010" is a biennial report, based on national contributions and jointly adopted by the Education Council and the Commission. It assesses overall progress and sets out priorities for the future of co-operation in the area of education and training. The focus of this joint report is on the provision of key competences at all levels of education and training.


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Some hightlights of the Biannual Joint Progress report:

  • A growth of 33% of graduates in Mathematics, Science and Technology is twice as high as the target benchmark of 15%, altough this is moslty by computing graduates.
  • Entrepeneurship is a recognices objective of the education systems and embedded explicityly in national framework curricula in only 6 EU countries (CY, ES, FI, IE, PL, UK).
  • SE, FI, DK, UK & Germany make the hightest innovation performance in the EU, although the researchers mention that the relationship between creativity and innovation (the capacity to transform creativity in innovative results), the assumption of the indicators, is a complex thing. The share of foreign born graduates and broadband access is in these highest ranking countries and its cities better, it thus confirms that creative occupations are associated with areas where there are high levels of skills and a heterogeneous and tolerant environment.
  • Progress in combating early leaving has been slow, only the Nordic countries and Spain have maked progress between 200 and 2008!
  • The probaility that a young migrant is an early leaver from education and training is more then double that for a national (26,8 vs. 13,6%!!!), especially in Southern Europe (40% in Spain, Italy, Greece), and in Germany 2,6! The opposite does appear to, in UK, Ireland and Portugal, migrants are attending more education then natives!
  • Boys have more difficulties then girls in adapting compulsory school environment (compare gaming as a projection of the need and absence for adventure and adult initiation rituals), so they are over represented among pupils with disabilities or learning disabilities, being 61% of pupils in the first categorie, 65% in the second one. Only in Bulgaria this is equal, and in Spain and Portugal the gender gap is at its highest.
  • The share of low achievers in reading literacy is increasing, from 21,3 to 24,1%!!!
  • Research shows that education as a positive impact on active citizenship, higher education (what citizenship is measured?) predicts it by far.
  • Finland, where children go to school only after/around 7 years old, they still have overal the best test scores.
  • The latest UNICEF research about the ratio of children and teachers in pre-primary school 15 children to 1 teacher (2008).
It focues on the follow up of the 2006 Remmondation on Key Competences.
1) The majority of the benchmarkts for 2010 will not be reaches, especially be a detoriation of literacy level, despite different national efforts.
2) There is still much to be done in teacher competence development and curricula key competences, and to introduce new ways of organising learning. With a major challenge to ensure that all benefit from innovative methodologies.
3) Implementing lifelong learning through formal, non-formal and informal learning and increasing mobility remains a challenge. Education and training, including universities, should become more open and relevant to the needs of the labour market and society in large.

There is a clear trend across the EU towards competence-based teaching and learning, and a learning outcomes approach. The European Framework of Key Competences has contributed considerably to this. In some countries, it has been key in policy reform.
Significant progress has been achieved particularly in school curricula. Traditional subject areas such as mother tongue, foreign languages or mathematics and science are being treated in a more cross-curricular way, with more emphasis on developing skills and positive attitudes alongside knowledge, and with more ‘real-life’ applications. The transversal key competences are becoming more prominent and more explicit in curricula. In the wake of what was seen as poor performance by many Member States in the 2006 PISA survey, several countries have created strategies or action plans to raise basic skills levels, particularly in reading, maths and science.  

Some Highlights of the Annual report:

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