Critical issues affecting the education system in the EU Member States

Subject: Critical issues affecting the education system in the EU Member States

The Commission recently published a study on discrimination in education, which contains worrying statistics on the differences in learning opportunities in the European education system.

Vulnerable groups in particular, and especially persons with disabilities, are most affected by learning difficulties, owing also to the impact that distance learning had during the pandemic.

According to a report by the Italian National Office of Statistics, the number of students with disabilities entering the Italian education system is increasing by 6 % year on year, while disparities are also increasing year on year.

There is therefore a need for national education systems to commit to improving accessibility and to bringing education for persons with disabilities up to the same level as for other students.

In the light of the above, will the Commission monitor and resolve the difficulties surrounding access to learning in the education systems of the EU Member States, particularly when it comes to persons with disabilities?

Submitted: 13.9.2023

Answer given by Commissioner Ivanova on behalf of the European Commission (30 November 2023)

The Commission attaches utmost importance in ensuring the right to quality inclusive and accessible education for persons with disabilities and supports Member States through policy initiatives and funding programmes as outlined in the strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030 (1).

The EU Strategy on the rights of the child reaffirms that all children have the right to develop skills, talents and interests, including through education and non-discriminatory treatment (2).

Removing barriers to learning and improving access to quality education for all is the key priority of the European Education Area (3). The EU helps policy developments by providing financial support to the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education.

The Council Recommendation on Pathways to School Success (4) invites Member States to support the inclusion of learners with disabilities and/or special educational needs in mainstream schools.

The European Regional Development Fund (5) supports improving equal access to inclusive and quality services in education, training and life-long learning.

It is complemented with the European Social Fund Plus (6) which supports investments in the development of innovative and effective teaching methods that deliver high-quality educational and training content.

Regarding the monitoring, a recent Eurydice network (7) report pays particular attention to learners with disabilities (8). The project EASNIE (9), supported by the Commission, gathers country-level data and cross-country reports on inclusive education (10).

The Commission is exploring the possibility of presenting data on some of the EU level indicators in education (e.g. early school leaving, tertiary education attainment) for people with long-standing activity limitations due to health problems, in addition to existing evidence (11).

1 ∙ ⸱ https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8376&furtherPubs=yes

2 ∙ ⸱ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021DC0142

3 ∙ ⸱ https://education.ec.europa.eu/

4 ∙ ⸱ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022H1209(01)

5 ∙ ⸱ https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/find-funding/eu-funding-programmes/european-regional-development-fund-erdf_en

6 ∙ ⸱ https://ec.europa.eu/european-social-fund-plus/en

7 ∙ ⸱ https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/

8 ∙ ⸱ https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/publications/promoting-diversity-and-inclusion-schools-europe

9 ∙ ⸱ https://www.european-agency.org/

10 ∙ ⸱ https://www.european-agency.org/activities/data

11 ∙ ⸱ https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1532&langId=en