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Proposal for national targets in the framework of the European reduction goal for early school leaving

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Abstract

According to the European Commission’s “Europe 2020” strategy, the early school leaving (ESL) rate in European Union (EU) Member States must be reduced to a maximum of 10 per cent by 2020. This paper proposes a nonlinear distribution method based on dynamic targets for reducing the percentage of early school leavers. The aim of this method is to provide policymakers with alternatives in terms of transferring the EU-wide headline target to individual national targets. Weighting was based on four indicators: ESL rate, unemployment rate, expenditure on education as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), and expenditure on schools per student. As a result, nine possible scenarios for ESL reduction have been constructed for each of the EU Member States in three groups: the whole EU up to June 2013 (EU27), EU Member States which joined before 30 April 2004 (EU15) and EU Member States which joined after 30 April 2004 (EU12). This method allows the European policy to be translated into specific national targets that would converge in the aggregate goal.

Résumé

Proposition d’objectifs nationaux dans le cadre européen de réduction de la déscolarisation précoce – La Commission européenne préconise dans sa stratégie « Europe 2020 » un abaissement du taux de sortie précoce du système scolaire à moins de 10 % d’ici 2020 dans les États membres de l’Union européenne. Les auteurs de cet article proposent une méthode de distribution non linéaire à partir d’objectifs dynamiques, qui vise à réduire la proportion des jeunes quittant prématurément l’école. Cette méthode a pour but de fournir aux décideurs des alternatives permettant de traduire l’objectif européen en objectifs nationaux. La pondération a été effectuée en fonction de quatre indicateurs : le taux de l’abandon scolaire prématuré (ASP), le taux de chômage, la dépense éducative en termes de pourcentage du produit intérieur brut (PIB), et la dépense scolaire par élève. Neuf scénarios en ont été tirés pour la réduction de l’ASP dans chacun des États membres répartis en trois groupes : l’ensemble des pays de l’UE avant juin 2013 (UE 27), les États devenus membres de l’UE avant le 30 avril 2004 (UE 15) et les États entrés dans l’UE après le 30 avril 2004 (UE 12). Cette méthode permet de transposer la politique européenne en objectifs nationaux pour converger vers l’objectif européen.

Resumen

Propuesta de valores objetivos nacionales en el marco del objetivo europeo de reducción del abandono educativo prematuro – La Comisión Europea estableció en la Estrategia “Europa 2020” que los Estados miembros deben reducir la tasa de abandono escolar prematuro (AEP) como mínimo al 10% en 2020. En este artículo se propone un método de distribución no lineal, en función de valores objetivos dinámicos, para reducir el porcentaje de la población que abandona prematuramente sus estudios. El objetivo de este método es ofrecer a los responsables políticos alternativas para traducir el valor objetivo global de la UE a valores objetivos nacionales. La ponderación se ha realizado en función de cuatro indicadores: tasa de AEP, tasa de desempleo, gasto en educación como porcentaje del producto interno bruto (PIB), y gasto escolar por alumno. Como resultado se obtuvieron nueve propuestas de reducción de la tasa de AEP para cada uno de los países miembros en tres grupos: la Unión Europea en su conjunto antes de junio de 2013 (EU27), los países miembros antes del 30 de abril de 2004 (EU15) y los países miembros que se integraron después del 30 de abril de 2004 (EU12). Este método permitirá traducir la política europea a valores objetivos nacionales, que convergerían hacia el valor objetivo global.

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Notes

  1. ISCED 0 = pre-primary education, ISCED 1 = primary education or first stage of basic education, ISCED 2 = lower secondary education or second stage of basic education and ISCED 3c = lower secondary education (less than 2 years). The current ISCED is ISCED-97, which was implemented in the UNESCO-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) data collection from 1998.

  2. For more information on the five Europe 2020 targets, see http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/europe-2020-in-a-nutshell/targets/index_en.htm.

  3. The so-called Lisbon strategy, set out by the European Council in Lisbon in 2000, was an ambitious action plan of investment in a knowledge-based and highly productive society. Its goal was to increase European competitiveness and to achieve economic, social and environmental renewal in EU Member States. Having set itself 2010 as a deadline, by which time many of the targets had not been reached, the Lisbon strategy (sometimes also referred to as the Lisbon agenda or the Lisbon process) was the forerunner of the Europe 2020 strategy.

  4. The Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT) uses these groupings in its reports. EU12 stands for EU Member States which joined after 30 April 2004: Cyprus (CY), Czech Republic (CZ), Estonia (EE), Hungary (HU), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Malta (MT), Poland (PL), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Bulgaria (BG) and Rumania (RO). EU15 stands for EU Member States which joined before 30 April 2004: Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Denmark (DK), Finland (FI), Germany (DE), Greece (EL), France (FR), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Luxembourg (LU), the Netherlands (NL), Portugal (PT), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK). EU27 stands for the whole EU (1 January 2007 to 30 June 2013): EU15 + EU12.

  5. Resulting from the Luxembourg European Council of November 1997, which examined best national practices in combating unemployment, the so-called Luxembourg process involves the coordination of Member States’ employment policies in terms of employment guidelines and national action plans.

  6. EUR PPS stands for Euro-based Purchasing Power Standard, an artificial currency unit used by the Statistical Office of the European Union, EUROSTAT.

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Acknowledgment

The authors are very grateful to Andalusia Regional Government (Consejería de Economía, Innovación y Ciencia), Spain, for financing this work through the Programme “Tercera fase de formación de personal docente e investigador en las Universidades Andaluzas, en áreas de conocimiento deficitarias por necesidades docentes (FPDU 2008)”. This is a programme co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

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  1. Area of Engineering Projects, University of Almeria, Junta de Andalucía Scholarship, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04005, Almería, Spain

    Xavier B. Lastra-Bravo, Alfredo Tolón-Becerra & José A. Salinas-Andújar

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  1. Xavier B. Lastra-Bravo
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  2. Alfredo Tolón-Becerra
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Correspondence to Xavier B. Lastra-Bravo.

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Lastra-Bravo, X.B., Tolón-Becerra, A. & Salinas-Andújar, J.A. Proposal for national targets in the framework of the European reduction goal for early school leaving. Int Rev Educ 59, 569–601 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-013-9385-x

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