European Commission education and training monitor
The European Commission has published the annual Education and Training Monitor in recent days in November. The Monitor is a statement that analyses how education and training are evolving in the EU and its Member States. The focus of 2020 Monitor has been on teaching and learning in the digital age. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated the importance of digital solutions for teaching and learning and pointed out to weaknesses.
The importance of digital skills in recent months during the pandemic has shown that necessary changes in digital education commitments to increasing digital literacy in Europe is needed. The new initiative by European Commission called Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 reflects on the needs and how to strengthen the contribution of education and training to the EU’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis and help create a green and digital Europe.
There has been development in digital infrastructure for education and training in recent years, however, the report highlights the considerable disproportions both among and within countries. Contrary to the commonly held view that today’s young people are a generation of ‘digital natives’, survey results indicate that the digital skills are improving but are still not sufficient and there is a room for improvement.
The access to highly digitally equipped and connected schools differs widely across Europe. It is highest in nordic countries where it ranges from 35% (primary) to 52% (lower secondary) to 72% (upper secondary). However, only 8% of students attend schools located in a village or small town which has access to a highspeed Internet above 100 Mbps. The overall rate of the pupil population who have low digital skills is more than 15% across all surveyed countries.
Additionally, teachers were not suitably prepared to use digital technologies in the classroom before the crisis. Only 49.1% of teachers reported that ICT was included in their formal education or training. Despite a growing number of teachers undertaking continued professional development (CPD) programmes in ICT, many didn’t have the opportunity to put into practice what learnt before the pandemic hit.
The Monitor, also, includes data on different areas such as early leavers from education and training, tertiary educational attainment, participation in early childhood education and employability rate of graduates.
In area – underachievement in basic skills (reading, science and maths) the target was set to less than 15%, and there has been little progress over the past decade. The underachievement rate stood at 21.7% in reading, 22.4% in mathematics, and 21.6% in science in 2018. Amongst countries that met the 15% target in reading were Estonia (10.2%), Denmark (14.6%), Poland (14.7%) and Finland (15.0%) ,and on the other end, countries with rate above 30% were Romania (46.6%), Bulgaria (44.4%), Cyprus (36.9%), Greece (35.8%) and Malta (30.2%).
The figures suggest that the improvement in many areas of education systems and presents policies is necessary and that recognising that investment in education contributes to economic growth and social inclusions that can be achieved by cooperation of schools, governments, and organisations within Europe and in EU member states.
