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.
