EU Commission wants to fight early school leaving with action plan

This week, the EU Commission presented its action plan to reduce the rate of early school leavers, one of the five key objectives of the EU 2020 Strategy. The aim is to reduce the current level of 14.4 % to under 10 % by the end of the decade. Early school leavers have great difficulties in finding a job, are more frequently unemployed and more often dependent on social benefits. The action plan urges the Member States to become active. Austria, which by now has achieved the 10 % mark, is already in a good position.

It is the aim to add young qualified people to the workforce

The action plan of the Commission, which reviews the situation across Europe regarding early school leaving, outlines the main causes and risks for future economic and social development and proposes more effective solutions to tackle this problem. The accompanying suggestion for a proposal of the Council contains guidelines, which support the Member States in developing a policy based on a comprehensive and evidence-based approach to reduce the rate of early school leavers. To tackle early school leaving effectively, not only the education policy but also youth and social policies have to be addressed.

Member States are urged to act

Now the ball is in the corner of the Education Ministers of the individual Member States. They will discuss the proposal of the Commission during their Council meeting on 2nd to 4th May 2011 in Brussels, on the basis of which the Member States are urged to come up with comprehensive strategies by the end of 2012 and to implement these through their national reform programmes. Once before, in 2003, the EU Member States agreed to reduce the share of early school leavers among the 18-24-year olds in Europe to less than 10 % – this proposition failed. One can only hope that history does not repeat itself.

Further information:
Homepage of the EU Commission on early school leaving http://ec.europa.eu/education/school-education/doc2268_en.htm

Contributor/author of the post: Petra Kampf – ENTER

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