Reducing the average European rate of early school leavers to less than 10 per cent by 2020 is one of the education headline targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy. In June 2011, the Education Council adopted a Recommendation on policies to reduce early school leaving (ESL). It highlights the need for evidence-based and comprehensive policies to reduce ESL. In December 2011, a Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving was established to help European countries implement such comprehensive policies. The Thematic Working Group (TWG) consisted of policy makers, practitioners and experts... [+] Show more
Reducing the average European rate of early school leavers to less than 10 per cent by 2020 is one of the education headline targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy. In June 2011, the Education Council adopted a Recommendation on policies to reduce early school leaving (ESL). It highlights the need for evidence-based and comprehensive policies to reduce ESL. In December 2011, a Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving was established to help European countries implement such comprehensive policies. The Thematic Working Group (TWG) consisted of policy makers, practitioners and experts from 27 [European Union] EU Member States. The objective of the TWG was to support Member States design and develop comprehensive policies on ESL. To this end, the TWG collected and exchanged information on effective policies to reduce ESL. This report presents the main conclusions and lessons learnt by the TWG. It aims to inspire and generate the development of a comprehensive approach to ESL. The structure of this report is as follows: Chapter two starts with a discussion on the definition of ESL. It summarises the challenge of defining ESL. It provides a brief overview of the current situation in Europe. It also presents the key challenges, the scale of the problem and main factors leading to ESL across Europe. Chapters three, four, five and six further develop the concept of 'comprehensive policies' to reduce ESL and present a discussion on the key characteristics of successful policies. Annex 1 presents a checklist on comprehensive policies as a self-assessment tool. Annex 2 provides 2012 ESL rates in the EU based on Eurostat data. Annex 3 presents practice examples from European countries represented in the TWG.
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