EU Sees Continued Decline in School Drop-Outs With 9.9% in 2020 - Eurostat

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2021) The European Union has registered a further reduction of "early school leavers," those under 24 years old who drop out of school or professional training before completion, hitting 9.9% in 2020, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on Thursday.

"The share of 'early school leavers,' a term that refers to early leavers from education and training (aged 18-24), has steadily decreased in the European Union (EU) over the last 10 years (from 13.8% in 2010 to 9.9% in 2020)," Eurostat said.

According to the statistics, more young men (11.8%) left education early than women (8%) in 2020. Compared to the previous year, the share of male drop-outs remained the same, whereas the share of female students leaving school early decreased by 0.

4 percentage points.

However, there have been some deviations from the trend in certain countries. In 2020, nearly all EU countries reported a decrease in early leavers compared to 2010, except for Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden, Luxembourg and Bulgaria, which all reported an increase of a bit under three percentage points.

Last year, the lowest shares of early leavers were registered in Croatia (2.2%), Greece (3.8%), Slovenia (4.1%), Ireland (5.0%) and Poland (5.4%), Eurostat said. Countries with the highest shares were Malta (16.7%), Spain (16.0%), Romania (15.6%), Italy (13.1%) and Bulgaria (12.8%).

The EU has set a target to reduce the rates of "early school leavers" to below 9% at the bloc level by 2030.