COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS IMPROVING AND MODERNISING EDUCATION
Date: 2016-12-07
Institutions: European Commission, Secretariat-General
Subjects: access to education, cooperation in the field of education, education, educational reform, educational system, level of education, new educational methods, teaching quality

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   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 7.12.2016  COM(2016) 941 final   COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS IMPROVING AND MODERNISING EDUCATION  
 
 
IMPROVING AND MODERNISING EDUCATION 

High Quality Education For All 

1. Education is of strategic importance for our societies and economic development 

Europe's prosperity and way of life are based upon its greatest asset: its people. In a 
changing society and global competitive environment, quality education is crucial for the 
EU  to  ensure  continued  social  cohesion,  competitiveness  and  sustained  growth.  To  be 
able  to  deliver  on  the  objectives  of  jobs,  growth,  investment  and  competitiveness,  with 
social  fairness  at  its  core,  it  is  vital  to  invest  in  young  people.  Providing  high-quality 
education for all is one of the best investments a society can make. 

Quality  education  for  all  is  a  foundation  for  social  cohesion  and  an  open  society. 
Quality education is much more than an economic investment. It is essential for personal, 
social and professional development as well as for employability over the lifetime. And it 
can  be  one  of  the  most  effective  ways  to  address  socio-economic  inequalities  and 
promote  social  inclusion.  To  achieve  these  objectives,  education  systems  need  to  be 
accessible and give equal opportunities to all, irrespective of a person's background, and 
produce high quality outcomes. 

Education and training systems in Europe provide good results … Member States are 
primarily responsible for their education and training systems, and all of them have been 
engaged in significant reforms and peer reviews over the years. Europe has made good 
progress  in  improving  education  overall.  This  is  for  instance  visible  in  the  increasing 
share of young people graduating from higher education, with the Europe 2020 headline 
target of 40% being in reach. By the same token, it is a major success that the share of 
early  school-leavers  has  been  brought  down  over  the  period  2005-2015  by  30%,  now 
amounting to an EU average of 11%.  

…  but  there  is  no  reason  for  complacency.  The  recent  results  of  the  OECD  PISA1 
survey  confirm  that  a  high  share  of  15-year-old  pupils  have  too  low  basic  skills  in 
reading, mathematics and science and that, most worryingly, the results are worse than in 
2012.  Cross-country  comparisons  show  that  some  Member  States  need  to  reduce  the 
share of pupils with very low basic skills (amounting, in some Member States, to above 
30%). In view of employability, more progress is warranted to reach the EU benchmark 
for the employment rate of young graduates of 82% to be reached by 2020. Today, this 
share amounts to only 77 %. Another key concern remains that many young people leave 
school prematurely without a formal qualification, in particular, in the group of foreign-
born students, for whom the share of early school-leavers amounts to 19%. This evidence 
points to a clear need to improve the performance and results of education and training 
systems.  The  recent  influx  of  refugees  also  requires  a  swift  response  and  an  effective 
integration strategy. 

Quality of education should be a reality for all students. A particular cause for concern 
is  that  students  with  a  vulnerable  socio-economic  background  are  over-represented 
among  students  showing  low  achievements.  Another  challenge  is  to  offer  equal 
educational quality throughout the EU including in remote areas. This points to the risk 
that there is a divide within the education system. Education offers a unique opportunity 
to counter socio-economic disparities and gender stereotypes and make sure that nobody 

1 http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ 

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is left behind. However, at present, European education systems are not effective enough 
in using this potential. 

Education systems need to be modernised and the quality of education continuously 
improved.  Globalisation  and  technological  change  open  up  new  possibilities,  for 
education  and  for  work.  Only  a  quarter  of  the  school  children  in  Europe  are  taught  by 
digitally  confident  teachers.2  Digital  transformation  is  changing  the  job  market  and 
requiring  new  skill  sets.  Digital  technologies  will  also  offer  new  ways  of  learning 
provided that there is adequate access to these technologies. To reap the benefits of these 
trends, education and training systems need to respond better to these changing realities. 
High-quality education is essential to equip young people with the knowledge, attitudes, 
skills,  and  mind-sets  they  need  to  help  them  to  seize  the  new  opportunities.  School 
systems  struggle  with  providing  sufficient  key  competences,  such  as  digital  and 
entrepreneurial skills or social and civic competences. This issue needs to be addressed. 
Striving for improving the quality of education is a goal that is relevant for all Member 
States.  Even  the  countries  that  show  good  performance  have  no  reason  to  rest  on  their 
laurels. Ensuring high quality education is a task that is never finished: it needs constant 
attention, improvement, and adaptation.  

Efficiency  needs  to  be  improved:  maintaining  high-quality  and  inclusive  education 
systems comes at a cost and requires appropriate funding. As a growth-enhancing type of 
public expenditure, spending on education has the potential to promote social fairness as 
well as an innovative and competitive economy, offering good employment prospects. In 
2014, for the first time in three years, public expenditure increased in real terms, reaching 
4.9%  of  GDP3.  There  is,  however,  no  guarantee  that  increasing  public  spending  yields 
automatically better results. In fact, comparing the results of PISA and the level of public 
spending  on  pre-school  and  school  education  reveals  large  differences  in  how  efficient 
Member  States  make  use  of  their  resources.  This  evidence  points  to  the  critical 
importance of increasing efficiency, i.e. to make best possible use of limited resources to 
ensure quality, equity, and performance.  

Policy  efforts  to  invest  more  effectively  in  young  people  should  be  enhanced.  
The  focus  of  the  present  Communication  is  on  stressing  the  fundamental  role  of 
education and on setting out ways to support the efforts of the Member States, either in 
the  board  (chapter  3).  This 
specific  education  sectors  (chapter  2)  or  across 
Communication  is  part  of  a  larger  package  of  actions  to  support  young  people.  The 
renewed efforts to improve and modernise education are closely linked to and partly built 
on the New Skills Agenda for Europe4, which was launched in June 2016. The actions set 
out under these initiatives complement and reinforce each other.  

2 Survey of Schools: ICT in Education Benchmarking Access, Use and Attitudes to Technology in 
Europe’s Schools (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/sites/digital-agenda/files/KK-31-13-401-EN-
N.pdf) 
3 This EU average masks significant differences between Member States. The spending on education as 
percentage of GDP for specific Member States varies from 3% to 7.2%. 
4  COM  (2016)  381  Final  –  "A  New  Skills  Agenda  for  Europe:  Working  together  to  strengthen  human 
capital,  employability  and  competitiveness".  The  Agenda  focuses  on  equipping  more  people  with  better 
skills, making better use of existing skills and improving skills intelligence and information. 

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2. Better EU support to Member States in modernising school and higher education 

The EU can support Member States' reform efforts to modernise school and higher 
education.  In  2017,  the  Commission  will  present  specific  initiatives  addressing  key 
issues in the fields of school and higher education. These initiatives will be prepared in 
full respect of the principle of subsidiarity and in close cooperation with key stakeholders 
in  Member  States,  such  as  the  associations  of  learners,  teachers,  school  leaders  and 
parents, social partners, and civil society organisations.  

2.1. School and early childhood education 

Early childhood education and care 

Quality early childhood education and care is crucial to provide the foundation for 
personal  development  and  continued  learning.  The  first  years  in  life  are  of  critical 
importance to develop cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Deficits in early development 
are  difficult  to  catch  up  at  a  later  stage  in  life.  By  contrast,  high-quality  education, 
provided early in life, is a strong foundation for acquiring skills more easily throughout 
the entire life.  

High-quality early childhood education is an effective and efficient way to promote 
social  fairness.  It  helps  reduce  early  school  leaving  and  low  achievement  and  plays  a 
significant  role  in  overcoming  educational  disadvantage,  giving  children  from  a 
vulnerable  socio-economic  background  a  better  chance  for  upwards  social  mobility.  In 
addition,  providing  good  quality  early  childhood  and  care  costs  relatively  little  and  is 
much  more  effective  than  curative  action  later  in  life.  This  is  why  each  attempt  to 
improve education and the efficiency of education systems needs to start with a look at 
what happens in early childhood.  

Quality and accessibility matter. Member States have nearly reached the benchmark of 
95%  set  in  the  framework  for  cooperation  in  education  and  training  2020  in  providing 
early  childhood  education  and  care,  with  an  EU  average  participation  rate  of  94.3%  in 
2014.5 However, children from disadvantaged backgrounds and minority groups continue 
to be underrepresented.6 Early childhood education and care can, however, only play out 
its positive  impact on equal opportunities and social mobility, if it is  accessible for all, 
these  objectives  will  require  further 
affordable,  and  of  high-quality.  Meeting 
improvements.  In  particular,  it  is  essential  to  invest  in  well-qualified  and  trained 
educators,  and  to  design  curricula  that  stimulate  children  and  foster  their  learning 
process.  

The  Commission  will  further  support  Member  States  in  providing  high  quality  early 
childhood education and care and step up efforts to help them learn from each other and 
identify what works best. That will ensure an optimal transition for children from early 
education to primary schools.  

5 Education and Training monitor 2016 (ec.europa.eu/education/monitor) 
6 J. Bennet, 2012, Early childhood education and care (ECEC) for children from disadvantaged 
backgrounds: Findings from a European literature review and two case studies 

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School education  

Europe  needs  to  develop  and  innovate  school  education.  Many  school  education 
systems  struggle  to  respond  to  the  profound  and  complex  changes  our  societies  and 
economies are undergoing. There is a need for schools to adapt to the changing context, 
in which they operate, including the digital era and the increasing diversity among pupils. 
All  these  issues  require  not  only  the  adaptation  of  school  curricula,  but  more  diverse 
teaching and learning to address the needs of all learners. Being part of one and the same 
educational  system  does  not  necessarily  offer  the  same  opportunities  for  all.  There  are 
significant  disparities  in  the  quality  of  education  within  the  same  education  system. 
These  challenges  lead  to  an  increasing  pressure  on  the  governance  of  school  education 
systems  to  promote  higher  quality  education  and  inclusion  through  sustainable 
innovation. Europe needs to make sure that the digital divide is not exacerbated and that 
adequate access to digital resources and infrastructure for all is ensured.  

A close link between schools and their environment allows them to better adapt to 
specific  local  circumstances.  It  enables  schools  to  strengthen  their  cooperation  with 
local  community  and  to  offer  more  meaningful  learning  experiences  for  young  people 
beyond  school  and  formal  learning  structures.  The  right  balance  between  school 
autonomy and accountability helps improve education systems and produce high-quality 
outcomes. 

The quality of teaching and school leadership is crucial. One of the key elements in 
improving  the  quality,  social  outcomes  and  efficiency  of  schools  is  to  give  stronger 
support  to  teachers  and  school  leaders.  Teachers  play  a  pivotal  role  in  imparting 
knowledge  and  common  values  and  in  giving  support  to  pupils  who  come  from  a 
vulnerable socio-economic background. Enabling teachers to cope with these challenging 
tasks,  requires  strategic  investment  in  effective  school  leadership  and  a  teaching 
profession  that  is  based  on  excellent  initial  education,  teamwork,  and  career-long 
professional  development.  Digital  skills  and  competences  need  to  be  included  in  both 
pre- and in-service training of teachers and actively supported by school leaders. 

The Commission will:  

- on the basis of the new 2016 PISA data as well as the cooperation with the OECD, 
draw  policy  conclusions  and  support  policy  development  at  EU  and  national  level  to 
improve the effectiveness of resource use in schools; 

-  as  announced  in  the  New  Skills  Agenda  for  Europe,  review  the  2006  Framework  of 
Key Competences for Lifelong Learning to up-date its current definitions and adapt to 
new  needs  in  society  and  economy  and  attract  renewed  attention  to  learning  outcomes 
and to promote learners’ competence development; 

- support entrepreneurial mind-sets and skills (fostering a sense of initiative, creativity, 
innovation  and  responsibility)  and  entrepreneurship  education  through  a  dedicated 
action inviting Member States to encourage an entrepreneurship experience for all before 
finishing initial education;  

- as  announced  in the New Skills Agenda for Europe,  intensify work with  the Member 
States, with interest groups and with industry in the  Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, 
including  the  ET  2020  working  group  on  digital  skills  to  identify  challenges  and 
implement the best practices for digital education; 

5 

 
-  propose  a  policy  framework  and  a  draft  Council  Recommendation  on  promoting 
social inclusion and common values through education and non-formal learning in 
order to provide support and guidance to Member States;  

- actively support teacher education and continuous professional development in the 
effective transmission of the common values on which the Union is founded; 

- promote inclusive education through the further development of the European Toolkit 
for  Schools  as  well  as  the  use  of  Erasmus+  and  Horizon  2020  funds,  including  the 
support of an alliance of schools for inclusion to promote good practice in the area of 
inclusive learning (e.g. integration of migrant pupils and imparting common values); 

- offer targeted and innovative peer learning activities to inspire policy learning on the 
governance of school systems (quality assurance, optimisation of resource use, transition 
of learners through education);  

- use the European Social Fund transnational networks to exchange good practices, in 
particular,  the  Learning  and  Skills  network.  The  network  provides  a  space  for  mutual 
learning  across  borders  to  help  Member  States  and  other  stakeholders  improve  their 
policies  and  practices  when  managing  European  Structural  and  Investment  Funds' 
investments in learning and skills;  

- promote the use of the European Structural and Investment Funds for modernisation 
of  the  education  and  training  systems  and  ensuring  better  access  to  good  quality 
education and reducing school drop-out;  

- further develop eTwinning and the School Education Gateway to support constructive 
exchanges between teachers and other practitioners on what works in school education. 

2.2. Higher education 

Europe  needs  to  press  ahead  with  the  modernisation  of  higher  education.  
The expansion of access to higher education in recent years has undoubtedly been one of 
Europe’s  key  success  stories.  Nevertheless,  responding  to  the  demand  for  high-level 
skills society and in the economy remains a massive challenge for Europe’s universities 
and  colleges.  Despite  many  examples  of  excellence  and  the  commitment  of  staff, 
students  and  stakeholders,  a  recent  public  consultation  by  the  Commission7  revealed 
concerns  about  the  mismatch  between  what  higher  education  institutions  are  currently 
delivering and the skills graduates need to succeed. 

The  quality  of  teaching  is  a  key  factor  to  improve  quality  in  higher  education. 
Greater efforts are needed to invest in the pedagogical training of academic staff, which 
is  an area that has  traditionally been less valued than research output. In particular, the 
status  and  quality  of  teaching  in  higher  education  needs  to  be  improved.  This  requires 
progress in developing, recognising, and rewarding high-quality teaching. In addition, the 
increasing  diversity  of  the  student  population  makes  professional  teaching  ever  more 
urgent. Teachers need to be well prepared and trained for being able to cater for students 
with diverse backgrounds, expectations and needs. 

7 SWD(2016) 195 final 

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The Commission will present in 2017 a package of initiatives in the field of higher 
education.  The  modernisation  agenda  in  higher  education  supports  Member  States, 
educational institutions, staff and  students to  improve education and training  across the 
EU.  To  provide  a  solid  basis  for  the  future  work,  the  Commission  will  present  an  up-
dated8  and  renewed  agenda  for  higher  education  in  2017,  building  on  responses  to  the 
public consultation on priorities for EU cooperation that concluded in early 2016. 

The Commission will:  

- help higher education to better equip young people with the skills and competences they 
need  for  today’s  society,  through  supporting  stronger  cooperation  for  effective 
programme design and good policy. As announced in the New Skills Agenda for Europe, 
and as part of its efforts to improve the evidence base for policy and practice in higher 
education, the Commission will work with Member States to improve the availability of 
data on graduate employment and social outcomes (‘graduate tracking’) spanning also 
across vocational education and training sector; 

-  Increase  the  contribution  of  higher  education  institutions  to  regional  innovation,  by 
building  more  and  stronger  links  between  universities,  businesses  and  other 
organisations  –  linking  up  also  with  the  smart  specialisation  strategies  under  the 
European  Structural  and  Investment  Funds  opening  up  pathways  between  higher 
education and workplace; 

-  improve  the  interaction  between  research  and  teaching  ensuring  that  teaching  is 
based on state-of-the  art knowledge  and adequately recognised and that graduates have 
strong analytical and problem-solving skills; 

-  to  promote  adequate  and  effective  investment  in  higher  education  and  support 
Member State authorities, the Commission will focus on three strands of activity in 2017: 

A  review  of  effective  spending  on  higher  education  by  external  experts  and 

coordinated with on-going work by the OECD, reporting in early 2018; 

An enhanced programme of peer counselling on funding system design, building 

on successful pilots in the Czech Republic and an exercise just starting in Slovenia. 

Action  research  to  enhance  the  effectiveness  of  European  Structural  and 
Investment Funds in support of higher education. Led by the Joint Research Centre and 
funded  through  Erasmus+,  this  work  involves  analysing  how  higher  education  is  being 
involved in implementing smart specialisation strategies and providing concrete advice to 
regional authorities and stakeholders on how to optimise activities to achieve maximum 
impact. Starting in two pilot regions, the intention is to extend the work further, based on 
the results of the current work. 

8 On 20 September 2011, the Commission presented a Communication on "Supporting growth and jobs – 
an agenda for the modernisation of Europe's higher education systems" (COM(2011) 567 final). 

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3. Better support for Member States to drive reforms for better education systems 

Putting education high on the policy agenda. Efforts to drive an agenda for improved 
quality  and  performance  in  education  need  to  start  by  raising  awareness  about  the 
urgency  of  taking  action.  As  many  benefits  of  good  education  accrue  in  other  policy 
areas  –  such  as  social,  citizenship,  employment,  economic  or  security  policy  –  it  is 
necessary to see educational reforms in a broad context. A debate at top-level can help 
trigger  the  necessary  policy  momentum  for  paying  more  attention  and  taking  action  to 
improve the quality of education systems. 

Pursuing  education  reforms  under  the  European  Semester  of  economic  policy 
coordination.  Already  today,  the  employment  guidelines9  contain  a  mandate  to  drive 
educational  reforms,  and  issues  linked  to  education  are  part  of  the  work  under  the 
European Semester. The evidence-base on education under the European Semester could 
be  strengthened  further  by  making  better  use  of  the  analytical  report  "Education  and 
Training Monitor". In  addition, it could  also be explored how the OECD data  on skills 
could be exploited better as an indicator or benchmark to monitor progress in improving 
the quality of educational outcomes.  

Supporting  Member  States'  reform  efforts.  The  decision  how  to  develop  their 
education  and  training  systems  is  in  the  hands  of  Member  States.  Modernising  and 
improving  education  requires  reforms  that  are  based  on  sound  knowledge  about  what 
works  well in  education.  The  EU  level  can  help  inform  the  policy choices  of  decision-
makers  in  Member  States  by  providing  comparative  data,  strengthening  the  evidence-
base,  carrying  out  analysis  and  benchmarking,  promoting  mutual  learning,  sharing 
knowledge  about  good  practice  and  offering  targeted  support,  building  on  existing 
cooperation with several internal and external data providers, including the OECD. 

Improving  the  cooperation  across  policy-areas.  Given  the  inter-linkages  between 
education and other policy areas, cooperation across policies could be strengthened. This  
could  take  the  form  of  joint-up  policy  discussions,  linking  education  with  economics, 
finance, employment, social protection, health and inclusion policies, including regarding 
the  integration  of  third  country  nationals.  Education  also  plays  an  important  role  in 
preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism10. Such cooperation would also be 
instrumental in improving evidence-base about what works well in education.  

Increasing the focus on efficiency. Policy-efforts to increase the efficiency of education 
would benefit from combining the expertise of actors in the field of education and other 
policy  fields,  in  particular,  social  inclusion,  employment,  economic  policy  and  public 
finance. The aim would be to achieve better results. An innovative element would be to 
work  together,  for  example,  with  the  Economic  Policy  Committee,  the  Employment 
Committee  or  the  Social  Protection  Committee.  Building  on  the  positive  experience  in 
the  field  of  health  and  long-term  care,  the  Commission  services  could  prepare  jointly 
with  the  Economic  Policy  Committee  (and  other  relevant  bodies)  an  analysis  on 
education  policies  and  systems  and  their  efficiency  and  performance.  Such  work  could 
also  contribute  to  closer  cooperation  between  Council  formations,  e.g.  between  the 

9 Art 146 TFEU stipulates that Member States shall regard promoting employment as a matter of common 
concern and shall coordinate their action in this respect within the Council. In keeping with art 148 TFEU, 
the Council draws up guidelines which the Member States shall take into account in their employment 
policies.  
10 See the role of education in preventing radicalisation "Supporting the prevention of radicalisation leading 
to violent extremism" (COM(2016)379)" 

8 

 
                                                 
Council for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport the Employment, Social Policy, Health 
and Consumer Affairs Council and the Economic and Financial Affairs Council. 

The Commission will: 

- create an easy online access for good practice on “what works in education”, which 
acts  as  user-friendly  one-stop-shop, building  on and  complementing  the  existing  online 
tools; 

-  support  Member  States'  ongoing  efforts  in  keeping  up  with  digital  transformation  in 
education;     

- offer strengthened and up-scaled tailored policy support to Member States through peer 
counselling,  bringing  together  professional  peers  from  national  administrations  to 
provide external advice to a country requesting support on education reform; 

- strengthen the evidence base (in particular with the help of the annual Education and 
Training Monitor) and improving the quality of analysis (e.g. by promoting cooperation 
across  policy-areas  and  involving  bodies  such  as  the  Economic  Policy  Committee)  to 
close knowledge gaps about the key factors underpinning well-performing systems. 

4. Conclusion 

Modernising  and  improving  the  quality  of  education  require  reforms.  The  decision  to 
implement  these  reforms  lies  in  the  hands  of  Member  States.  At  the  same  time,  all 
Member States have a shared interest that these reforms make progress and yield results, 
from which Europe as a whole would benefit, for example in the form of social cohesion 
and fairness, higher growth, employment, innovation and competitiveness.  

The EU can assist the efforts of the Member States. The present Communication places 
the improvement and modernisation of education as a key priority on the EU agenda. It 
sets  out  targeted  action  at  EU-level  which  can  support  Member  States  in  their  reform 
efforts and help building a shared agenda to make high-quality education a reality for all.  

9