Abstract
This paper is a discussion of the challenges to equity faced by the education and training systems of the 28 EU countries (at time of writing), based on secondary sources and official reports by individual countries. The data are descriptive and simply summarised for this paper. The systems of all countries are fairly similar, modelled on those set up to deal with challenges of early industrialisation, and all now face several similar problems and opportunities. There is a clear correlation between family background, average attainment, and subsequent participation in education and training. All 28 countries show some signs of progress over time, both in terms of the absolute level of attainment, and in terms of reduced gaps between social and economic groups. These trends are historical, and thus hard to link to specific policies. However, looking at the common characteristics of countries with similar levels of equity can produce a tentative guide to its determinants. Some of the main suggestions are: More countries to set up monitoring systems for school intakes and outcomes; more robust evaluations of policy interventions; fair funding and opportunities for all students; extra funding for students facing challenges; no selection by ability or anything else; all taught in mainstream settings; no tracking or grade retention; more recognition of prior experience and learning; respectful interaction with all students; and use of context when allocating places in higher education, or simply more open access.
Highlights
This paper reports on the main challenges to equity in provision and outcomes, as faced by the education and training (ET) systems of Europe, using 2013/4 as the base year for comparison, and considering in 2020 the EU plan “Education and Training in Europe 2020” [1]
Much policy discourse on ET is founded on a simple version of human capital theory (HCT), which is of only marginal relevance to the wider issues of equity
These targets are clearly intended to provide a challenge to improve participation and attainment in ET. They have the limits that all such traditional targets traditionally do [17]. They are concerned with absolute levels in ET, not with equity as such
Summary
This paper reports on the main challenges to equity in provision and outcomes, as faced by the education and training (ET) systems of Europe, using 2013/4 as the base year for comparison, and considering in 2020 the EU plan “Education and Training in Europe 2020” [1]. It provides a summary of, and the implications from, 28 individual country reports, commissioned by the EU and written by experts in each country, approved by the relevant EU country desk officers, but not published and so unable to be cited directly.
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