Quality indicators

The Ministers of Education from the EU and the acceding countries met in Prague, June 1998. The final communiqué of the conference invited the Commission to set up a Working Committee of national experts with the objective of identifying a small number of key indicators or benchmarks to assist national evaluation of systems in the area of school standards. Experts from the 26 involved countries sit on this Committee.

A first progress report on the work of the Committee was presented for the Ministers of Education from the EU countries and the acceding countries in Budapest in June 1999. The report contained criteria for the selection of indicators, and set out the eleven broad indicator areas to be included.

In this second progress report, the result of the selection of indicators by the Working Committee is presented. A limited number of 16 indicators are proposed covering the areas of:

attainment (mathematics, reading, science, foreign languages, learning to learn, ICT, and civics);

success and transition (dropout rates, completion of upper secondary education, participation rates in tertiary education);

monitoring of school education (parental participation, evaluation and steering of school education);

resources and structures (educational expenditure per student, education and training of teachers, participation rates in pre-primary education, number of students per computer).

The indicators are selected on the basis of three selection criteria: political relevance of the area; comparability; and validity of the data. Special attention has been paid to areas covered by data which already exists. The choice of indicators will consequently be subject to changes over time in the light of the political agenda, in the field of school standards, both of the Member States and of the Union, and the availability of new valid and comparative data.

On the basis of the first list of indicators, a "European report on quality of education" has been prepared for the meeting of Ministers of Education from the EU and the acceding countries in Bucharest in June 2000 (Final communiqué - pdf format ). The report promises to be an important European tool for assisting national evaluation of systems in the area of school standards.