The European Commission today presented a report identifying both major positive trends and serious challenges for education systems across Europe. Positive news include: the increasing enrolment of 4-year olds in pre-school education, a significant rise in the numbers of students in higher education and a general trend towards longer periods of compulsory schooling. Among the important future challenges to be addressed will be demographic change, which means both fewer children of school age in Europe and teacher retirement on a very large scale in many countries in the near future. The report also states a universal trend to greater autonomy of schools in Europe.

Produced by the Eurydice Network, the 2009 edition of 'Key Data on Education in Europe' gives a comprehensive picture of the latest trends regarding the organisation and functioning of the education systems of 31 European countries (EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey), based on 121 indicators.

The European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, Ján Figel', said: "Our Key Data report reveals the good news that we're enrolling ever-increasing numbers of pre-primary school children, and we've got more and more university students than before. This shows that we are making progress towards making lifelong learning a reality for everyone, something that is important for the EU's social cohesion and long-term sustainability of the economic recovery. But there are also some challenges for us to work on: we expect shortages of teachers in some areas, and fewer children in compulsory education."

Key messages from the report include:
1) Demographic change: fewer pupils in compulsory education and widespread retirement of teachers
2) Longer compulsory schooling and significant rise in participation in higher education
3) Increased autonomy for schools combined with a rise in external evaluations, but varied policies on publications of results.

Download report.