Comments on Education and the European Union

This page-in-progress is for occasional comments on reports and communications from the European Union on the subject of education.

May 8, 2003. A curious press release on "European Benchmarks for Education"

In a press release of May 5, 2003, the Education Council of the European Commission announced adoption of Benchmarks for education. These benchmarks are to feed into a joint report being prepared by the Commission and the Education Council for the 2004 Spring European Summit. According to the press release, the Council set five concrete benchmarks for the improvement of education and training systems in Europe up til 2010. The five adopted benchmarks are:

• by 2010, an EU average rate of no more than 10 % early school leavers should be achieved.
• the total number of graduates in mathematics, science and technology in the European Union should increase by at least 15 % by 2010 while at the same time the level of gender imbalance should decrease.
• by 2010, at least 85 % of 22 year olds in the European Union should have completed upper secondary education.
• by 2010, the percentage of low-achieving 15 years old in reading literacy in the European Union should have decreased by at least 20% compared to the year 2000.
• By 2010, the European Union average level of participation in Lifelong Learning, should be at least 12.5% of the adult working age population (25-64 age group)

The European Union seems to be obsessed with Lifelong Learning, and at the same time they want the basic education to last longer. On the other hand, only the fourth of the above benchmarks displays as much as a bare minimum of concern for the quality of learning. If the EU should be in the business of education benchmarks at all then some focus on the content of education, and especially of basic education, would seem appropriate.

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