Press Release: Annual report on education systems in the EU confirms slow but steady progress

The European Commission presented the latest data on Member States' progress towards the 2010 goals they have set themselves for their education systems under the Lisbon strategy. This annual 'indicators and benchmarks' report looks at individual country's performances in key areas such as completion of secondary education, early school leavers, low achievers in reading literacy, graduates in maths, science and technology and the participation of adults in lifelong learning activities. The key finding of the 2008 report was that overall Europe is making progress in all five areas - with the exception of low achievers in reading. However, although education and training has been improving slowly but steadily in EU Member States since 2000, progress needs to be faster in almost all areas in order to reach the 2010 targets.