Education from the perspective of the Europe 2020 strategy: The case of southern countries of the European union

Abstract

Europe 2020 is the growth strategy of European Union for the coming decade. Education is one of the objectives of this strategy. Its fulfillment is quantified through two indicators, namely the rate of early school leavers and population with tertiary education. The aim of this paper is to analyse and assess the level of achievement of these two sub-objectives in the Member States in 2014, with the emphasis on the southern countries of the European Union as well as to estimate the the degree of fulfillment, respectively failure of the target values until the year 2020.