Take-up of OSC and activity types

• Author: Ludwinek, Anna; Clevers, Franziska
• Pages: 14-18

14

This chapter attempts to answer the following

questions:

£What proportion of children regularly attend OSC in

term time?

£What proportion of children regularly attend OSC

during holiday periods?

This chapter also provides an overview of the main

types of activity in which schoolchildren are engaged

during OSC (based on information provided on

out-of-school activities for children aged 12–15).

Take-up of OSC during term time

This section gives an overview of how much OSC

services are used in different countries. There are

several points to consider when examining the

numbers.

First, there are several methodological caveats. All the

information provided below comes from national

sources, which makes the comparison challenging for

the following reasons:

£the years that the data cover vary substantially, and

in some cases show a lack of policy focus

£due to different countries’ education set-ups, the

pupil age brackets vary

£the provision of services within countries’ school

systems varies

£the introduction of all-day schools, which has been

seen in several countries, has affected the take-up

of OSC services

Second, the take-up of OSC may be influenced by a

range of other factors, including the preference of the

parents for other arrangements. For example, family

members may have concerns over the quality of OSC

services available or may not use OSC services because

of one or more barriers (see Chapter 5).

Nevertheless, several observations can be made based

on the information provided because the majority of

countries have at least some data available on take-up

(five Member States have no information available).

As outlined earlier, driven by labour market integration

efforts and the disparity between work hours and

school hours, more attention is being focused on OSC in

national policy agendas. For example, in Luxembourg

and Portugal, more OSC places are now available to

parents. In 13 countries, where data are available (see

Table 1), the share of pupils attending OSC activities is

over 50%, with the highest take-up in Portugal (86%)

followed by Slovenia (83%), Denmark (82%), France and

Spain (both 80%), followed by Belgium (66%, figure for

Flanders only), Luxembourg (58%), Czechia (57%),

Hungary (56%) and Lithuania (54%). Countries where

the take-up ranges from 26% up to 50% include

Slovakia (45%), Finland (42%) and Poland (39%).

Countries where the take-up is 25% or below include

Austria (25%), Cyprus (14%) and Ireland (8%).

There are substantial variations in Germany and

therefore it is difficult to estimate a national average. As

an example, regional differences in take-up range from

98% in Hamburg to just 2% in Mecklenburg-Pomerania.

In Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Slovenia and

Norway, attendance at OSC activities decreases as the

age of the child increases. Reasons suggested for this

decrease with age include less demand from and

greater independence of older schoolchildren.

4 Take-up of OSC and activity

types