The Agency has participated in an event in Serbia to explore the different methods used in European countries to combat school drop-out.
The event, which took place both online and live in Belgrade in early December, was an opportunity for stakeholders in Serbia and across Europe to learn how different countries work to reduce the number of learners dropping out of school. Early school leaving is recognised as impacting on learners’ life chances, reducing their opportunities to enter the labour market and often leading to poor health outcomes and social exclusion.
The event’s peer learning approach aimed to inform a working group exploring school drop-out as part of comprehensive reforms of Serbia’s education system, which are supported by the European Union. Participants at the event included members of the Serbian Ministry for Education, Science and Technological Development and key stakeholders from local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and municipalities. In addition, speakers from universities in Antwerp (Belgium) and Porto (Portugal) and a representative from a project to reduce early school leaving in Latvia presented their countries’ perspectives and techniques to reduce school drop-out.
Agency representative Anthoula Kefallinou presented key Agency findings on early school leaving and drop-out. These included information from the Early School Leaving reports, data from the European Agency Statistics on Inclusive Education (EASIE) and details from EASIE-related work on out-of-school learners. The data provided general information on school drop-out and methods to reduce it and illustrated the current situation in Serbia.