Efficiency and Equity in European Education and Training Systems Culture and Education

The opinions expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the European Parliament. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorized, provided the source is acknowledged and the publisher is given prior notice and sent a copy. The note gives a critical analysis of the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament entitled " Efficiency and Equity in European education and training systems " (COM(2006) 481 final). On the basis of this analysis, the Commission's recommendations are examined and further recommendations for action are made. Executive summary The Commission calls for consideration of the double challenge posed to European education and training systems: to ensure both competitiveness and social cohesion. It immediately sets the background against which this challenge must take place: a context of limitation of public spending, and four significant pressures-globalisation, population issues, the rapid development of the nature of the labour market, and technological innovation. A resolutely economic approach is therefore clearly outlined right from the second paragraph, and is maintained throughout the text as a whole. This orientation translates into the approach of the two central concepts of the text: equity and efficiency. Equity is defined as " the extent to which individuals can take advantage of education and training, in terms of opportunities, access, treatment and outcomes ". This definition combines, without specifying as such, different concepts. These different concepts are based on very different demands: firstly, equal opportunities, and secondly, actual equality of access, treatment and results (internal or external). While the first concept addresses the idea of potential equality, the three others concern actual equality, whether being able to have access to the same educational service, benefiting from equal treatment, or obtaining equal results. According to the Commission, a system is defined as equitable if, firstly, " the outcomes of the education and training are independent of socioeconomic background and other factors that lead to educational disadvantage " and secondly, if " the treatment reflects individuals' specific learning needs ". However, the Commission has not retained the notion of " threshold " which states that beyond a certain level or " threshold " of skills, individuals are sufficiently equipped to continue their schooling and confront the demand for higher skills required in order to integrate satisfactorily into civil society and the labour market. Gender, ethnic origin, or …