According to statistical data released on April 11 by Eurostat, an improvement has been recorded in Greece about early leavers from education and training. Specifically, in 2012 the percentage of early school leavers in the country declined to 11.4% from 13.1% in 2011, while the average in the EU declined from 13.5% to 12.8%. The target rate set for Greece is 9.7%, while in the EU it is under 10%.
In general, this data reveals that the majority of the EU Member States have made progress in reducing early school leaving. However, there are still large disparities between Member States and between males and females.
According to the Eurostat data, among 12 Member States (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden) the rates of early school leaving are now below the 10% target rate of the EU, while Ireland has for the first time reached such a percentage.
Spain (24.9%), Malta (22.6%) and Portugal (20.8%) had the highest rates of early school leaving, but therefore showed good progress compared to 2011. Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia and Great Britain reduced early school leaving by at least one percentage point, while the rate increased in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.
Overall, girls tend to do better: The percentage of girls who drop out of school is 24% lower than that of boys. The disparity is bigger in Cyprus (+58%), Latvia (+57%), Luxembourg (+57%) and Poland (+55%), where the dropout rate for boys is more than double than that of girls.
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