Press Release: European Commission proposes 5 European benchmarks for education and training systems in Europe

Briefly, the five benchmarks to be achieved by 2010 are:

1.Halve the rate of early school leavers, in reference to the rate recorded in the year 2000, in order to achieve an EU-average rate of 9% or less
2.Halve the level of gender imbalance among graduates in mathematics, science and technology, whilst securing an overall significant increase of the total number of graduates compared to the year 2000
3.Ensure that the average percentage of 25-59 years olds in the EU with at least upper secondary education reaches 80% or more
4.Halve the percentage of low-achieving 15 year olds in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy in each Member State
5. Increase the EU-average level of participation in lifelong learning to at least 15% of the adult working age population (25-64 age group) and in no country should it be lower than 10%