The EU report published on April 19 shows that 49% of 30-34 year olds in Ireland have a third level qualification - well exceeding the ‘Europe 2020’ target of 40% set two years ago.

However, Ireland was the worst performer for increasing numbers of maths, science and technology graduates, with a boost of only 1% between 2000 and 2008. The numbers of women science graduates actually fell in that period.

Another problem area was the number of low achievers in reading, maths and science. This number increased from 11% in 2000 to 17.2% in 2009.

The report covers all EU Member States, plus Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Turkey, Norway and Liechtenstein.

It contains overviews and detailed statistics identifying which countries perform above or below the EU average and which are catching up or falling behind compared to the others.

Androulla Vassiliou, the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said:

"The good news is that education levels in Europe have risen considerably. More young people complete secondary education and graduate from higher education compared to ten years ago.

“But early school leaving continues to be a problem that affects one in seven young people in the European Union and one in five pupils still have poor reading skills at the age of 15.

“That is why education and training are among the core objectives of Europe 2020. We need further efforts from Member States to reach our joint European targets."

The Commissioner strongly urges Member States not to make cuts in education budgets despite the constraints they face due to the economic crisis.

"Spending on education is a good investment for jobs and economic growth and in the long term pays for itself.

“But in times of budgetary pressures we also have to ensure that resources are used as efficiently as possible," she added.

In the coming weeks, Member States will submit their national reform programmes to the Commission. These will set national targets on early school leaving and higher education graduates and will spell out how the countries want to achieve their goals.

The Commission will soon present proposed new benchmarks on employability and learning mobility.

2010 Benchmarks

Pre-school participation: Benchmark 2020
By 2020, at least 95% of children between the age of four and the age for starting compulsory primary education should participate in early childhood education (now 92.3%, achieving this target would mean over 250 000 more young children in education);

Result:
By 2008 only 72% of Irish children between 4 years old and the starting age of compulsory education participated in early childhood education compared to 100% in France, and 99.5% in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Low achievers: Benchmark 2010/2020
By 2010, the share of low achievers in reading should decrease by 20% to 17%. By 2020 the share of low achievers in reading, maths and science should be less than 15%.

Result:
In Ireland the share of low achievers actually increased from 11% in 2000 to 12.1% in 2006 to 17.2% in 2009. 
Finland was the best performer with only 8.1%.

Early school leavers: Benchmark 2010/2020 (also EU 2020 headline target)
By 2010/2020, a share of early school leavers of no more than 10% should be reached.

Result:
Ireland has improved in this respect with the rate of early school leavers dropping from 14.6% in 2002 to 11.3% in 2009.
Poland (5.3%), the Czech Republic (5.4%) and Slovakia (4.9%) were the best performers.

Youth education attainment: Benchmark 2010
By 2010, at least 85% of 22 year-olds in the EU should have should have completed upper-secondary education.

Result:
Ireland has exceeded the target at 87% in 2009, a rise 4.4% since 2000 but a drop of 0.7% since 2008 when we reached 87.7%.
The best performers were Slovakia at 93.3%, the Czech Republic at 91.9% and Poland at 91.3%.

Maths, science & technology graduates: Benchmark 2010
By 2010 the total number of MST graduates in the EU should increase by at least 15%, gender imbalance should decrease.

Result:
Ireland was the worst performer in this area with an increase of only 1% between 2000 and 2008. Furthermore the share of females dropped from 37.9% to 30.4%.
Portugal (193.2%), Slovakia (185.8%) and the Czech Republic (141.3%) were the best performers.

Tertiary attainment: Benchmark 2020 (also EU 2020 headline target)
By 2020, tertiary attainment of 30-34 year olds should at least reach 40%.

Result:
Ireland was the best performer in the EU and well exceeded the target with rates rising from 27.5% in 2000 to 49% in 2009 (the highest level in the EU).
Denmark at 48.1% and Luxembourg at 46.6% were next.

Adult lifelong learning participation: Benchmark 2010/2020
The EU average level of participation in lifelong learning of the working age population should at least reach 12.5% in 2010 and 15% in 2020.

Result:
Ireland fell well below the target with rates dropping from 7.4% in 2005 to 6.3% in 2009.
The best performers were Denmark (31.6%), Sweden (22.2%) and Finland (22.1%).

Full Commission report