WRITTEN QUESTION E-2253/01

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(26 July 2001)

Subject: Research into scholastic failure in the European Union

The education and training of young people are of paramount importance as they help them acquire the ability to develop their personality and potential in full, to play a full and positive role in the development of the European society. It follows that scholastic failure has tangible personal and social consequences which far transcend the fields of education and training.

The Research and Technology Development Programme allows funding for studies and proposals relating to scholastic failure in the Member States of the European Union.

Is the Commission aware of any proposals by research establishments or universities relating to scholastic failure? Has it initiated the procedure for a comparative assessment of any such proposals? If so, what were the results?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(12 October 2001)

The Targeted Socio-Economic Research (TSER) Programme of the Fourth Framework Programme for research and technological development (RTD) of the Community and the Key Action Improving the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base of the Fifth Framework Programme for RTD support European researchers in the social sciences and humanities and include some research in relation to education and training issues. Within these activities, there are no projects dedicated specifically to the issue of scholastic failure. Therefore, there is no possibility to provide a comparative assessment of proposals on this topic outside the normal procedures of independent evaluation of proposals across the whole Key Action. However, some projects consider the issue of scholastic failure in relation, for example, to the transition from education to work, immigration, social exclusion, educational change, education governance, etc.

The most relevant research project in relation to scholastic failure in the Community is entitled A Comparative Analysis of Transitions from Education to Work in Europe and has been completed recently. The final report as well as a number of research papers and other publications from this project can be found at the project's web-site: http://www.mzes.uni-mannheim.de/projekte/catewe/publ/publ_e.html.

Other studies have been carried out in the framework of the Socrates programme, two of them are particularly interesting for the issue of school failure:

- Success for all: promoting access of socially excluded children to basic skills (1997/1999) which analyses the various educational strategies for socially excluded youth in Europe classified in three categories: equal opportunities, equal treatment or equal outcomes strategies.

- Dropping out and secondary education (1997/1999) which provides on one hand Community country reports describing the number and distribution of drop-outs in secondary education and, on the other hand, comparative analysis of drop-outs profiles and their relationships with pre-existing structures of inequality. The researchers have formulated recommendations for educational policy makers taking into account that dropping out is a cumulative process, which develops over several years, and that the structural and cultural-biographical factors need to be apprehended in a integrated approach.