Legal base	—
Document originated	16 December 2008
Deposited in Parliament	12 January 2009
Department	Innovation, Universities and Skills
Basis of consideration	EM of 23 January 2009
Previous Committee Report	None
To be discussed in Council	May 2009
Committee's assessment	Politically important
Committee's decision	Cleared; further information requested

Background

10.1 Article 149 of the EC Treaty requires the Community to contribute to the development of "quality education" by encouraging cooperation between Member States and, if necessary, supporting and supplementing their action, while fully respecting the responsibility of Member States for the content of teaching and the organisation of the education system.

10.2 Article 150 of the EC Treaty requires the Community to have a vocational training policy which supports and supplements the action of Member States, while fully respecting the responsibility of Member States for the content and organisation of vocational training.

10.3 Since 2000, Member States and the European Commission have been cooperating with each other through the Education and Training 2010 work programme. The programme:

• sets three strategic goals (improve the quality and effectiveness of education and training in the EU; facilitate access for all to education and training; and open the EC education and training systems to the wider world);
• defined 13 objectives;
• set five benchmarks (for example, to reduce to no more than 10% the proportion of children who leave school prematurely; to increase adult participation in lifelong learning to 12.5%); and
• defined 16 indicators to measure performance.

10.4 The Commission and Member States have used the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) to help them implement the 2010 work programme. The principle features of the OMC are as follows:

• Member States voluntarily agree EU-wide objectives and goals;
• they also define a set of common indicators to measure progress towards the achievement of the objectives;
• each Member State translates the common objectives into national policies; and
• progress is assessed jointly by the Commission and Member States ("peer review").

The document

10.5 The Commission's Communication reviews the Community's progress towards achieving the goals, objectives and benchmarks the Council approved; compares educational attainment in the EC with attainment in competitor countries; and makes proposals for the period up to 2020.

10.6 The Commission notes that the EC has exceeded one of the benchmarks (to increase by 15% the number of graduates in maths, science and technology), will not reach three others and has seen an increase — not a reduction — in the number of children who leave school prematurely.

10.7 The Commission also notes that the proportion of low achievers in reading at age 15 is higher in the EC than in the USA, Japan, Korea, Canada and Australia; and that only 23% of people aged 25 to 64 in the EC have had a tertiary education compared with 40% in Japan, 39% in the USA and 32% in Australia and Korea.

10.8 When it approved the Lisbon Strategy in 2000, the European Council stressed the importance of education and training to the achievement of the Strategy's objectives for growth, jobs and social inclusion. On the basis of the EC's implementation of the 2010 work programme and extensive consultations, the Commission proposes that European cooperation in education and training should address four "strategic challenges" in the period ending in 2020. The challenges are:

• to make lifelong learning and learner mobility a reality;
• to improve the quality and efficiency of education and training;
• to promote equity and active citizenship — everyone should be able to acquire, up-date and develop the job-specific skills and the competences needed to take part in social, cultural and political life; and
• encourage and enable innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship at all levels of education and training.

The Commission says that these strategic challenges should provide the basis for policy cooperation between 2010 and 2020.

10.9 The Communication also sets out the priorities the Commission proposes for 2009-10. It says that Member States and the Commission should, for example:

• complete the implementation of the national plans for lifelong learning;
• link all national qualifications to the European Qualifications Framework;
• remove obstacles to the mobility of people to obtain education and training;
• improve the quality and range of professional development for teachers and trainers;
• set up a group to investigate the causes of children's reading difficulties and recommend ways to improve literacy across the EU;
• do more to prevent children from leaving school prematurely; and
• develop partnerships between the providers of education and training, research institutions and creative industries.

10.10 The Commission also proposes action to increase the effectiveness of the OMC in education and training by, for example, strengthening peer review.

10.11 In the Commission's view, the five existing benchmarks have proved useful in monitoring progress. The Commission wishes to discuss with Member States the following proposals for ten new benchmarks to be achieved by 2020:

• increase to 15% the proportion of the adult population participating in lifelong learning;
• develop a benchmark for the mobility of students, vocational trainees, school children, teachers and trainers;
• reduce by 15% the proportion of children aged 15 with low attainment in maths, reading and science;
• teach two foreign languages to at least 80% of children in lower secondary education;
• invest 2% of GDP in higher education;
• increase to 45% the proportion of people aged 30-34 who received a tertiary education;
• develop new benchmarks linked to the participation in the labour market of people with different levels of educational attainment;
• ensure that at least 90% of children aged 4 receive pre-school education;
• retain the present benchmark for not more than 10% of people aged 18-24 to have had only a lower-secondary education and who are not receiving education or training; and
• if feasible, develop a benchmark on the contribution of education to innovation and creativity.

10.12 The Commission calls on Member States to endorse its proposals for the strategic challenges for the period up to 2020, the priorities for 2009-10 and the improvements to the OMC.

The Government's view

10.13 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 23 January 2009, the Minister for Further Education at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Schools (Mr Sion Simon) tells us that the 2010 Education and Training work programme and the OMC have helped Member States learn from each other, exchange good practice and develop EC-wide programmes for education and training. The time is ripe to consider the objectives and working methods for 2010-20.

10.14 The Government believes that the Commission has correctly identified the strategic challenges which face Member States. It also agrees with the proposed priorities for 2009-10 and the proposals to strengthen the OMC.

10.15 The Minister notes that only one of the existing benchmarks has been attained and says that:

"We and other Member States are currently discussing the proposed new set of benchmarks with the Commission. We want to work with the Commission to see if an arrangement can be reached so that a varied series of benchmarks can be set which allow both Member States and the Commission to track progress on the reform agenda."[35]

The Czech Presidency expects that Council Conclusions on the Commission's proposals will be agreed at the Education Council in May.

Conclusion

10.16 In our view, the four challenges the Commission has identified for education and training over the next decade are neither surprising nor contentious. The proposals for new benchmarks appear ambitious and we shall be interested to learn the outcome of the Council's consideration of them. We should be grateful, therefore, if the Minister would send us a copy of the Council Conclusions, together with his comments on them. Meanwhile, we draw the Communication to the attention of the House and clear the document from scrutiny.