EDUCATION COUNCIL : MEMBER STATES WANT LESS AMBITIOUS EDUCATION OBJECTIVES.

The EU's member states are not likely to adopt, during the next Education Council in May, the European Commission's proposal for six new education benchmarks. This was one of the conclusions of a public debate held during the Council meeting of education ministers, on 16 February, on the Union's new education targets for 2010-2020. Of the old' benchmarks, only one has been met by the member states (regarding the number of tertiary graduates in mathematics, science and technology)

Calling for the development of "evidence-based" policy, Czech Education Minister Ondrej Liska said the May Council conclusions will be based on the outcome of the ministers' 16 February debate. He said he expected to build consensus by May.

Voicing their "reservations" on the need to establish new targets, the ministers also discussed the methodology for measuring pre-set targets. According to the UK, any new benchmark should be "appropriate" and "intelligent". The official representing Denmark said he had no faith in specific input targets. Instead, he said, attention should be focused on the "output," ie the results. The Dutch official seconded this opinion, and warned against the danger of increased bureaucracy that may arise from the establishment of new benchmarks.

After the meeting, Education Commissioner Jan Figel said he considered it a challenge to turn the benchmarks into reality. He said the achievements in the area of education are the result of longer-term policies, adding that the fact that only one of the five old' benchmarks has been meet is a "reason to do more".

The ministers queried whether it was realistic and achievable to agree new and more ambitious benchmarks, considering that the old' ones have not been met. They also expressed concern about the national reporting systems on the strategic objectives and the "ranking" of member states based on those. At the same time, the ministers agreed to retain the four old' objectives that have not been meta(increase the participation of adults in lifelong learning, lower the number of early school...