Archive:Disability statistics - access to education and training
This article is part of the set of articles on Disability that provides information on persons with disabilities, based on the data of the 2011 ad-hoc module of the EU Labour Force Survey (LFS-AHM). It provides information on the access to education and training of the population with disabilities aged 15-64 in 31 countries (EU-28 Member States, Turkey, Iceland and Switzerland).
The data presented are linked to the Europe 2020 indicators on education, namely early leavers from education and training, and tertiary educational attainment. Furthermore, insight is given on the proportion of young people not in employment and not in any education (NEET), the highest level of education attained and the participation in education (formal and non-formal).
Based on how the 2011 ad-hoc module was designed, the following two main definitions for “disability” were considered for the presentation of the results:
- Definition 1: People having a basic activity difficulty (such as seeing, hearing, walking, communicating);
- Definition 2: People limited in work activity because of a longstanding health problem and/or a basic activity difficulty (LHPAD).
The second definition may be considered more restrictive in the sense that it specifically refers to difficulties in working activities (unlike the first definition); the type of “disability” on the other hand is defined in a much broader context as it refers to both longstanding health problems and basic activity difficulties.
Main statistical findings
Disabled people leave education and training earlier
The Europe 2020 strategy calls for efforts to reduce the proportion of early leavers from education and training to less than 10 % by 2020. At the EU-28 level, around one person out of four was in this situation in the group reporting a basic activity difficulty while 12.4% of the people without difficulty were early school leavers (see Figure 1).
At a country level, in the group having a basic activity difficulty, this rate varied from 10.8% in Sweden to more than 60% in Turkey and Bulgaria. In the group of persons without difficulties, a number of Member States (Croatia, Sweden, Slovakia, Poland and Czech Republic) reported less than 5% of early school leavers. Conversely, 40.8% of the Turkish people without difficulties were more likely to leave school earlier.
Similarly, when considering the second definition of disability, in the EU as a whole, the rate of early leavers from school and education was for much higher for disabled people than for those not having a disability: 31.5% versus 12.3%.The gap between the two populations was less marked in Finland, Sweden and Switzerland (less 10 percentage points of difference). At the opposite, Romania recorded the highest discrepancy, where 71.3% of the persons having a work limitation caused by a LHPAD are early school leavers against 17.3% among those without work limitation.
Young people neither in employment nor in education and training: twice as many among persons with disabilities in the EU-28
In 2011, in the EU-28, 30.7% of persons aged 15-34 having a basic activity difficulty were neither in employment nor in any education. This is 15 percentage points more compared to the same age group but without basic activity difficulty (see Figure 2). The gap was much more marked for persons aged 15-34 having limitations in work caused by a LHPAD: here a difference of 25 percentage points compared to persons without limitations was observed (respective shares of 40.4% against 15.4%).
At country level, the difference varied from 2.4 percentage points in Switzerland to more than 40 percentage points in Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania (for definition 1). In Romania and Slovakia, more than 6 out of 10 young persons reporting a basic activity difficulty (for Bulgaria nearly three quarters) were neither in employment, nor in education. In contrast, among the young reporting no difficulties, this proportion was below 20% for Romania and Slovakia, and about 25% in Bulgaria.
When the second definition is considered, the most significant differences observed between people aged 15-34 with and without limitations in work were attained in Bulgaria (with 86.0% and 24.5%, respectively), followed by Romania (75.2% against 18.1%) and Lithuania (67.2% against 14.4%)
First and second stage of tertiary education level attained by 15% of disabled persons; 25% for those not having a disability
At the EU-28 level, nearly two persons out of 5 having a basic activity difficulty attained “pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education” levels whereas less than 30% of the persons without a basic activity difficulty are in this situation. Regarding the second definition, the gap between the two groups was more emphasised (13.5 percentage points). Moreover, the share for disabled persons attaining the “first and second stage of tertiary education level” was lower than the one measured for non disabled persons (15.5% versus 25.0%, respectively for the first definition).
Belgium, Ireland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom recorded the largest differences between the persons with and without a work limitation caused by a LHPAD in the tertiary attainment level, with at least 15 percentage points difference.
Moreover, at EU level, the share of persons attaining “upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary educations” levels remained quite similar among disabled and non-disabled persons (between 45% and 47%, whatever the definition of disability applied). However, there was a wider gap between both aforementioned groups regarding the share of persons attaining “pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education” levels and “first and second stage of tertiary education” levels. Indeed, among persons having a basic activity difficulty, a difference of 23 percentage points was observed between the lowest (38.9%) and the highest (15.5%) educational attainment levels. The disparity was far more outspoken for persons having limitations in work caused by a LHPAD, with a 28 percentage points gap between the aforesaid educational attainment levels (41.8% against 13.4%). Conversely, among persons without disabilities, the difference was of 3 percentage points only (around 28% and 25% respectively for the lowest and the highest educational levels attainment).
At the country level, this general picture is largely confirmed. Still, some particularities can be detected: the share reported for “pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education” attainment level was very high for Malta, Portugal and Turkey whatever the condition of persons aged 15-64 (i.e. with our without work limitation/disability). Among people with basic activity difficulties for instance, this share was 77.9% for Malta, 84.0% for Portugal and 85.9% in Turkey, with obviously very low shares in the higher attainment levels.
Tertiary education completion: those with disabilities far from the objective of 40%
The Europe 2020 strategy aims to increase the share of the population aged 30-34 having completed tertiary education to at least 40%. About 36% of people aged 30-34 without disabilities attained this educational level in 2011, against less than 24% for persons having basic activity difficulty and about 22% for those having limitation in work caused by a LHPAD (see Table 1).
The abovementioned target was attained by 13 Member States, Iceland and Switzerland among persons with no work limitation or activity difficulty whatsoever. The proportion even exceeded 50% in Sweden, Ireland and Iceland.
Among persons aged 30-34 with basic activity difficulties, more than 36% of persons completed a tertiary educational level in Finland and Luxembourg; followed by Spain with 34.8% and France with 32.6%. This proportion is already reached for persons with limitations in work in Iceland (where 40.9% of age group 30-34 attained a tertiary educational level). Proportions are also comparatively high in Spain (35.3%) and in Sweden (34.0%). Conversely, the lowest rates were observed for Turkey (6.8%) and Italy (11.2%). It should be noted that for a number of countries, the figures should be taken very carefully due to their low reliability.
The largest gap between persons aged 30-34 with and without work limitations or basic activity difficulties were observed in Belgium and Ireland with more than 23 percentage points difference for the first disability measure and more than 29 percentage points for the second one. This contrasts with the situation in Austria, where persons having difficulties with basic activities registered a higher share of tertiary education attainment (25.5%) compared with persons without such difficulties (24.6%).
Lifelong learning: less than 10% of disabled people participated in education and training; about 21% for not disabled
In the EU-28 countries, almost one disabled person out of 10 aged 15-64 participated in education and training (formal and non-formal); this was two times less compared to non-disabled persons (see Figure 4).
With shares between 20% and 30%, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland reported the highest proportions in terms of participation in education and training, whatever the type of disability considered. Those five countries displayed education and training participation rates that were among the highest for persons without disabilities (between 33% and 44%).
A similar link can be observed at the other side of the spectrum: among countries with the lowest participation rates in terms of education and training, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey displayed values of around 4% or lower for persons with activity difficulties or work limitations and never exceeding 20% for non-disabled.
The largest differences between the disabled and non-disabled population were observed in Lithuania and Slovenia with more than 18 percentage points difference: in Lithuania, a share under 5% was observed for disabled persons against 23% for not disabled; in Slovenia, the percentages were of 14% and 32% respectively.
Data sources and availability
All statistics presented in this article are derived from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). This is a quarterly, large sample survey providing results for the population living in private households in the EU, EFTA and the candidate countries.
The EU-LFS included an ad-hoc module on the employment of disabled people in 2002 and 2011. The aim of this module was to provide information on the situation of disabled people on the labour market as compared to those without disabilities. The target population of this module is the working age population (i.e. population aged 15-64).
Context
The Preamble to the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities recognizes the importance of the accessibility to education. Article 8b (Awareness Raising) requires states to encourage “an attitude of respect for the rights of persons with disabilities” at all levels of the education system, and Article 24 (Education) deals with the issue in detail. It asserts the right to education “without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity”. The education system should be inclusive at all levels, including informal and lifelong learning. This means that young disabled people should not be excluded because of their impairment or disability status. They should be able to learn “on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live”. There should be provision of “reasonable accommodation” and “individualized support”. Article 24.5 concludes that “States Parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others.” To this end, they are expected to ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with disabilities.
Moreover, the promotion of inclusive education and lifelong learning for students and pupils with disabilities is one of the priority areas set up by the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 adopted on 15 November 2010. The practical implementation of the strategy is provided by the Academic Network of European Disability experts (ANED) created by the European Commission in December 2008.
Based upon country reports prepared by ANED’s national correspondents, a report was recently prepared for the European Commission to examine if the commitment made within the Lisbon strategy (aiming at ensuring that EU education and training systems are ‘accessible to all’) is being achieved, in terms of educational opportunities and outcomes for youth and young adults with disabilities. The report notably highlights significant challenges and barriers that remain and includes recommendations to overcome such barriers.
See also
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- Statistical analysis and publication of the results of the 2011 Labour Force Survey ad hoc module on employment of disabled people
Database
- Disability, see:
- Access to education and training for disabled people (source LFS) (hlth_dsb_educ)
Dedicated section
- Health, see
- Disability
Methodology / Metadata
- Prevalence of disability (source LFS) (hlth_dsb_prv)
- Background articles in Statistics Explained
Other information
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 317/2010 of 16 April 2010 adopting the specifications of the 2011 ad hoc module on employment of disabled people for the labour force sample survey provided for by Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98
External links
- European Disability Strategy 2010-2020
- The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)
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