Dr. Paul Downes co-authors major review of early school leaving policies across 35 European countries

Dr. Paul Downes, Associate Professor of Education (Psychology), Director of DCU’s Educational Disadvantage Centre, Institute of Education, has co-authored a major review of early school leaving policies across 35 European countries just published by the European Commission.

This formal review for the Commission operates against the background of Early School Leaving being one of the two headline EU2020 targets for all of education across the European Union. It examines the progress of all EU member states in reducing early school leaving, in developing national policies and strategies, and in implementing the concrete recommendations of the 2011 Council Recommendation on Early School Leaving in their national strategies over the past decade.

The study covers 37 countries, the EU 28, the 4 EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Norway) and the 5 EU candidate countries (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey). As well as reviewing Early School Leaving national strategies and policies across all these countries, 10 of the 37 countries were selected for more detailed case studies, including Ireland.

The review extracted ‘heat maps’ of structural indicators identified as key for system development and reform for early school leaving prevention, intervention and compensation, building on the evidence-informed EU policy documents in this area since the 2011 Recommendation.

The review sets out a range of key policy recommendations for the EU Commission and National Governments on this issue. These recommendations will inform the post-ET2020 Education planning regarding headline targets in education, Erasmus + and European Social Fund (ESF) funding strands regarding early school leaving and social inclusion measures generally.

The report also outlines recommendations for dialogue between the EU Commission and the international research community regarding early school leaving, including dialogue with universities with regard to initial teacher education on this issue.

To view the full report Assessment of the implementation of the 2011 Council Recommendation on Policies to Reduce Early School Leaving (Donlevy, Day, Andriescu & Downes 2019)