Off the wire
• Political advisors discuss improving special education  • S. African stocks gain for second consecutive day  • Urgent: India bans currency notes of 500, 1000 denomination to curb black money  • Foot injury sidelines Kroos for at least a month  • Cash issues force postponement of Mediterranean Games  • EU seminar to focus on big data use for medicines development, regulation  • Zambia doubles toll fees on roads  • Irish consumer sentiment slides to 20-month low  • Hebei officials punished for slack pollution control  • Kenya's Yego eyes to reclaim title, revenge in Athens Marathon  
You are here: 　 Home

EU urges member states to address education inequality faced by immigrants

Xinhua, November 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) on Monday called on member states to make their education systems more "relevant and inclusive" in order to address inequality faced mainly by students with immigration backgrounds.

The European Commission, or the EU executive arm, on Monday published the Education and Training Monitor report, an annual evaluation of education and training systems across Europe.

By analyzing the latest data and documents, the report found that all EU member states faced a dual task of ensuring adequate financial investment and offering high-quality education to young people from all backgrounds, including refugees and migrants.

Few countries made satisfactory progress in pushing for education equality in 2016, according to the 92-page report.

The report says that young people with immigration backgrounds are more likely to become early leavers from education and training, which means they would drop out of secondary education without attaining a diploma.

In 2015, for example, 19 percent of foreign-born students left school early, while only 10.1 percent of native-born students did the same.

The problem is more severe in countries that have the history of taking in large numbers of immigrants, such as Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

In Belgium, 19.4 percent of foreign-born students dropped out of secondary education in 2015, while only 9 percent of indigenous students did so.

As for higher education, current figures show that 44.8 percent of indigenous Belgians are able to graduate with a college or university diploma, while only 27.2 percent of Belgians with non-European roots can achieve that.

The EU is calling on member states like Belgium to take actions to reduce the gap, particularly given the rise in the number of refugees and migrants coming to Europe in the past two years.

"Significant efforts are needed to help them find their place in our societies. This includes integrating them quickly into appropriate education and training, and helping them realise their potential in the labour market," said Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for Education.

The EU only saw 400,000 newcomers in 2013, but the number drastically rose to 1.25 million last year, among whom about 30 percent are under 18. Endit