The new Eurydice report offers valuable insights into how policies and structures affect equity in school education and how they relate to student performance.
With the rising focus on education in EU policy dialogues over the past years, inclusive and equitable education have become a major priority (see SwissCore article). However, the socio-economic background of students continues to influence their achievement in school, and disadvantaged students are more likely to underperform and leave education early. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed disparities and new challenges that may exacerbate existing inequalities.
The Eurydice Network is the European Commission’s Education Information Network providing European education policy makers and stakeholders with analyses and information with the goal to assist them in their decision-making. Looking at 42 European education systems, including Switzerland, the new Eurydice report aims to provide an overview of the policies and structures that affect equity in school education. It further connects these system-level features to student performance in international student assessment surveys (PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS). The report focuses on primary, lower and upper secondary school education as well as on publicly funded schools or government-dependent private schools during the reference school year 2018/19.
Although the majority of countries address equity in education in their top-level policies through concepts or concrete initiatives, notable differences regarding implementation or levels of equity exist between different education systems, in secondary education in particular. The level of equity is measured by the achievement gap between high- and low-achieving students (inclusion dimension) as well as the impact of socio-economic background on student achievement (fairness dimension).
The empirical data suggests that there is a strong association between early childhood education and care (ECEC) and the following development and academic performance. While children who enjoy ECEC are more likely to succeed in their career development than children who enter education at a later stage, only 34% of children in Europe under the age of 3 attend ECEC and only eight countries offer guaranteed access to ECEC right after the end of childcare leave. An increasing number of European countries is concerned with installing measures and initiatives to ensure better access to and quality of ECEC, however, disadvantaged children still participate less in ECEC due to hurdles related to cost, cultural and linguistic factors, or lack of information.
Public spending proves to be an important factor for reducing achievement gaps, particularly in primary education. European countries’ funding per student for primary and lower secondary education ranges between 1’940 and 13’430 purchasing power standards (PPS), with countries such as Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland spending the most and Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey spending the least. However, higher public funding does not automatically lead to more equity. Whereas public funding is a necessary condition for equity in education, the level of equity also heavily depends on structural features of the education system. In addition, private spending on education may also influence the level of equity of an education system. While some households can afford to boost their children’s educational chances with additional private or complementary education services, others may face limited financial capacity.
Although catering to the diverse needs of students, increased diversity in the types of school can increase academic segregation and decrease equity. Differences in governance and funding can lead to differentiation, with public/private differentiation being a key factor for influencing equity. The levels of freedom to choose a school vary between different education systems. The report reveals that free choice of schools can have a negative impact on equity. When in combination with different admission policies, which often result from different levels of autonomy of the schools, differentiation in school choice policies can lead to further academic segregation and a stronger impact of socio-economic background on performance.
Assigning students to different educational programmes or tracks at an early stage can have a strong negative impact on equity, even more so when in combination with other equity-influencing factors such as differentiation among vocational tracks. While grade repetition is still a common practice across Europe, the report reveals that it can result in the widening of the gap between low- and high-achieving students. Grade repetition further underlines how the socio-economic background is related to student performance. However, over the past decade, grade repetition has become less prominent and many education systems have put in place mechanisms to support students in their progress towards the next grade and to avoid a fall-back.
Lastly, the report highlights that measures to support disadvantaged schools could be more diverse and, apart from offering financial support, should also focus on the socio-economic composition of schools as well as trained education staff. Low-achieving students, especially on the secondary level, can profit from teachers who are specifically trained in dealing with low achievement.