EU Commission action plan to reduce early school leaving

The action plan intends to help member states to achieve the Europe 2020 headline target of reducing the EU average rate of early school leavers to under 10% from the current level of 14.4%, by the end of the decade.

Cyprus, according to the Commission, has achieved significant reduction in the number of pupils leaving school early. The percentage in 2009 was 11.7%, recording a 36.8% drop from 2000, which was the best progress recorded among Eurozone countries, after Luxembourg.

Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou said “reducing the share of early school leavers across Europe by just 1 percentage point would create nearly half a million additional qualified young people each year. Most EU countries have made progress in reducing the number of young people leaving school with low qualifications but more needs to be done.”

The Commission's new initiative includes a proposed Recommendation, containing guidelines that will help member states develop comprehensive policies to reduce the percentage of early school leavers.

The proposals will be discussed by the Ministers of Education during their meeting in Brussels from May 2 to 4. The member states will be called upon to approve comprehensive strategies based on the framework given by the end of 2012 and implement them through their national reform programmes.