European Child Guarantee: Education

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) measures the share of 15-year-old students failing to reach level 2 (‘basic skills level’) on the PISA scale for three core school subjects: mathematics, reading and science. The data stem from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial international survey aiming to evaluate education systems by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. 

In 2022, 26.6% of all children in the EU27 were low achievers in mathematics, reading or science, with small differences across the disciplines (29.5%, 26.2% and 24.2% respectively). 

Analysis over time of shares of low-achieving 15-year-olds in reading, maths and science, 2012–2022

For the period 2012–2022 covered by this indicator, the EU27 average share of low-achieving 15-year-olds increased for reading and science, and mathematics. The increase was particularly large among low achievers in maths. The EU average stayed constant at around 22% until 2022, when the rate increased to 29.5%. 

Across the three subjects, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands recorded a deterioration in their performance by more than 10 percentage points. All Member States saw their shares increasing, with Greece, Romania and Bulgaria well above the EU average. Estonia, Ireland and Denmark had a low share of low-achieving children throughout the period and across the three disciplines, although witnessing an erosion in performance.

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The share of households with children reporting great difficulties to pay for formal education is retrieved from the EU-SILC 2016 ad-hoc module on 'Access to services’, which provides information on financial barriers hindering participation of children in education, such as tuition fees and other costs of formal education (for example, learning material, canteen costs, school trips).  

This module provides information about households with dependent children aged less than 18 years reporting some level of difficulty to pay for formal education. The indicator can be broken down into households at risk of poverty or social exclusion. As the indicator only takes a snapshot of the situation in 2016, it is not possible to analyse this indicator over time.

For households with children at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE), the EU27 average share was 17.5% in 2016, rising to 46.1% of households in Greece, 42.3% in Cyprus and 41.5% in Hungary. France (2.9%), Latvia (5.1%) and Germany (6.8%) recorded the lowest percentages in 2016.
For households with non-AROPE children, the EU27 average share of households with dependent children and reporting great difficulties to pay for formal education was 2.6% in 2016. Greece (21.2%), Cyprus (18.5%) and Hungary (8.8%) showed the highest shares, while the lowest shares were found in Estonia (0.6%), Germany (0.5%) and Sweden (0.2%).

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Eurostat measures the public expenditure on primary and secondary education as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The main source of data is the joint UIS (UNESCO Institute of Statistics)/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) questionnaires on education statistics.   

EU27 averages are not available. However, the EU27 unweighted averages for 2019 (the latest year for which national-level data are available) amount to 21.1% of spending in primary education, 24.1% for lower secondary education and 28.4% for upper secondary education. 

Analysis over time of government expenditure on education per student in primary and secondary education, 2015–2019

For the period 2015–2019 the EU unweighted average expenditure on education increased for primary education and decreased for secondary education. During the same period, an increase of disparities can be seen between Member States for primary education expenditure, which is reflected in the increase over time in the standard deviation. Therefore, upward divergence is recorded. As for secondary education, disparities decreased over time, resulting in downward convergence over time.

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This EU-SILC indicator measures the share of children aged under 16 suffering from the enforced lack of access to school trips and school events that cost money. The indicator is part of the child-specific deprivation module. The data presented here cover AROPE and non-AROPE children.

In 2021, the percentage of non-AROPE children in the EU27 was 16.1%. The Netherlands (1.3%), Austria (1.5%) and Estonia (2.2%) were the best performers that year. Conversely, Latvia (45.1%), Cyprus (50.1%) and Romania (52.9%) had the highest percentages.

The rate for AROPE children was 34.9% in the EU27 in 2021. The Netherlands (5.4%), Estonia (5.5%) and Finland (6.8%) performed best, while Hungary (60.4%), Bulgaria (70.2%) and Romania (78.6%) recorded the highest rates of children unable to access school trips and events costing money.

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This EU-SILC indicator measures the share of children aged under 16 suffering from the enforced lack of access to regular leisure activities. The indicator is part of the child-specific deprivation module. The data presented here cover AROPE and non-AROPE children.

In 2021, 29% of non-AROPE children in the EU27 suffered a lack of access to regular leisure activities. The Netherlands (12.6%), Spain (14.4%) and Estonia (14.9%) performed best in this regard. The highest percentages could be found in Latvia (48.4%), Romania (54.2%) and Bulgaria (58.4%).

This compares with 53.2% of AROPE children in the EU27 suffering a lack of access to regular leisure activities in 2021. in the EU Estonia (23.6%), Ireland (31%) and Poland (37.6%) had the lowest percentages, while Slovakia (70.4%), Bulgaria (87%) and Romania (89.9%) recorded the highest shares of children suffering from enforced lack of access to regular leisure activities.

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The EU-LFS indicator measures the share of the population aged 18–24 with at most lower secondary education who were not involved in any education or training during the four weeks preceding the survey. The indicator considers gender and educational attainment of the parents.

In 2022, 9.6% of young adults aged 18–24 in the EU27 were early school leavers (11.1% of males and 8.0% of females). 

Analysis over time of the share of early school leavers, by sex and parental educational attainment, 2015–2022

For the period 2015–2022 covered by this indicator, the EU average decreased by 1.4 percentage points for young males and females. The share of early school leavers was especially large for the population with parents with low educational attainment. During the same period, a decrease of disparities can be seen between Member States for all disciplines, which is reflected in the decrease over time in the standard deviation. Therefore, upward convergence is recorded, as reflected in an improvement of the situation in the EU27 over time (that is, fewer school leavers) together with a decrease in disparities between countries.

Although the EU average shows gender balance in the level of improvement for males and females, the dynamics between the Member States are slightly different. For instance, Portugal notably improved its performance during the period by 7.7 percentage points, falling below the EU average of early school leavers. Malta and Spain also showed a significant reduction, both moving closer to the EU average. Portugal’s improvement was, however, more balanced between males (-8.5 percentage points) and females (-7.1 points). In the case of Malta and Spain, the improvement rate for males was significantly higher than for females. Cyprus and Germany showed a deterioration in performance by more than two percentage points. In Cyprus, the female share increased more than that for males, whereas Germany witnessed the opposite.

Data for early leavers and parental educational attainment are only available for 2021, hence no time series analysis was possible. Notwithstanding, the average EU results show that early leavers are more common among those whose parents have a low educational attainment (26.2%), and much less for medium (6.9%) or high (2.9%) levels of education. The percentage is slightly higher among male respondents compared to female respondents, but gender differences become smaller as the educational attainment of parents increases. Despite the missing values for some countries, something can be said about them. In Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, early school leavers whose parents have a low level of education account for more than 50% (69.7%, 57.5%, 55.5% and 51.1% respectively).

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The socioeconomic profile is measured by the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status. Advantaged and disadvantaged schools are defined in terms of the socioeconomic profile of schools.

All schools in each PISA-participating education system are ranked according to their average PISA index of economic, social and cultural status and then divided into four groups with approximately an equal number of students (quarters). Schools in the bottom quarter are referred to as ‘socioeconomically disadvantaged schools’; and schools in the top quarter are referred to as ‘socioeconomically advantaged schools’.

Data for 2018 are not available for Austria due to low reliability. Regarding the other countries, the biggest differences in the number of students per teacher in socioeconomically disadvantaged schools and socioeconomically advantaged schools could be found in the Netherlands (6.0 percentage points), Belgium (4.4 percentage points) and Italy (3.9 percentage points).

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