Efficiency and equity in EU education and training systems

KEY POINTS

• Education and training policies can have a significant positive impact on economic and social outcomes, but inequities in education and training also have huge hidden costs, including income tax losses, increased demand for healthcare, and the costs of higher rates of crime. Policies which reduce these costs can deliver both equity and efficiency benefits.
• EU countries can maximise return from their education and training systems by considering equity alongside efficiency when taking decisions about system reform. They should develop policies for the whole lifelong learning continuum, allowing for long-term planning at local and national levels when deciding spending priorities.

Pre-primary education: Focusing on learning at an early age

• Pre-primary education has the highest returns in terms of the achievement and social adaptation of children. EU countries should invest more in pre-primary education as the basis for further learning, preventing school drop-out, and increasing equity of outcomes and overall skill levels. Lack of investment in early learning leads to much higher levels of remedial spending later, which is less cost-effective and can be linked with spending more on crime, health, unemployment and other social policies.
• Programmes focusing on learning as well as personal and social competences tend to produce better outcomes and greater knock-on effects throughout life, while involving parents is essential. The supply of specially trained pre-primary teachers will need to be improved in many EU countries.

Primary and secondary education: improving the quality of basic education for everyone

• Education and training systems should provide the basic education and key competences everyone needs, but this is especially important for some disadvantaged groups and where EU countries are providing for a large number of migrants and ethnic minorities.
• Most research suggests that tracking³ pupils at an early age make the effects of socio-economic background on educational attainment worse, and do not raise efficiency in the long run. Postponing tracking until upper secondary level, with the possibility of transferring between schools, can reduce segregation and promote equity without diminishing efficiency.
• Local autonomy for institutions and central accountability systems can improve student performance, but a full commitment to equity must be built in.
• The most important factors for efficiency and equity are the quality, experience and motivation of teachers, who play a key role in the participation of the most disadvantaged. Developing recruitment policies that ensure high-quality teaching for disadvantaged pupils should be a priority.

Higher education: improving investment while widening participation

• Free access to higher education does not necessarily guarantee equity. To strengthen both efficiency and equity, EU countries should create appropriate conditions and incentives to generate higher investment from public and private sources including, where appropriate, through tuition fees alongside financial measures — for those who are disadvantaged.
• Higher education institutions should offer a more varied range of courses and incentives to meet increasingly diverse social and economic needs.
• EU countries should develop clear and diverse pathways through vocational education and training leading to further learning and employment. They should also improve public training programmes for unemployed people and disadvantaged learners.

EU action

• EU countries have the main role in tackling these challenges, while the EU ensures that diverse education and training systems benefit from sharing best practice, particularly on pre-primary education.
• The Lifelong Learning Programme supports the mobility of millions of individuals, giving them new skills and helping them adapt to the EU labour market, taking advantage of EU Structural Funds for system reforms and projects to develop education and training provision.