Contribution of the European Social Fund in combating early school leaving, together with the Commission’s replies

Summary:

Under the Lisbon Agenda of 2000, the European Council agreed, as part of its social inclusion agenda, to focus on reducing the percentage of young people leaving school prematurely from the average rate of 19,3 %. To this end it established a benchmark which required that ‘By 2010, all Member States should have at least halved the rate of early school leaving, in reference to the rate recorded in the year 2000, in order to achieve an EU average rate of 10 % or less’. The audit examined for six Member States (Spain, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom) the nature of ongoing actions co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) with the aim of tackling the problem of early school leaving (ESL). It assessed whether there were adequate procedures in place to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of such actions aimed at these objectives.

The ESF supports many different types of actions aimed at preventing school drop-out or reintroducing young people into the educational system, such as the introduction of differentiated curricula, special-needs classes, attendance monitoring systems, social integration skills and activities, educational assessment, and guidance counselling.

Official

European Commission: PRESS RELEASE, 20/04/2006: Information note by the European Court of Auditors on Special Report No 1/2006 on the contribution of the European Social Fund in combating early school leaving http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_ECA-06-9_en.htm?locale=en

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