Definition: share of young people aged 18 to 24 with at most a lower secondary school degree who did not receive any education or training during the 4 weeks preceding the interview. This education level corresponds to the levels 0-2 of the 2011 ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) for data from 2014 onwards and to the levels 0-3C of the 1997 ISCED for data up to 2013. The data come from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Statistics Belgium organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. The survey methodology was reviewed in 2017. Comparison of the 2017 data with previous years should be done with caution. The data used here come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results between EU Member States. Since these data are based on surveys, a margin of uncertainty should be taken into account. This margin of uncertainty increases as the indicator is calculated on smaller sub-populations. The confidence intervals for these data are available on request from Statistics Belgium.

Goal: zero percent early school leavers by 2030.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 4.1: "By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes". This goal seeks to ensure that all girls and boys complete free and quality primary and secondary education is interpreted as aiming at 0% early school leavers by 2030.

Under the European Pillar of Social Rights, Belgium has set a target of 7.4% in the share of school leavers by 2030 (European Commission, 2022; Federal Public Service Social Security, 2023).

International comparison: early school leaving has decreased in Belgium as well as in the EU27, early school leaving in Belgium being below that of the EU27 throughout the studied period. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with average performance and performs better than the European average in 2022. In that year, Croatia ranked first with 2.3% and Romania last with 15.6%.

UN indicator: the selected indicator is related to indicator 4.1.1 - Proportion of children and young people: (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex. It was chosen because it provides information on the number of students leaving secondary education with a degree from lower secondary education at most.

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

• Specific

  • Council of the European Union (2021), Council Resolution on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021-2030), p. 15, Official Journal of the European Union, https://eur-lex.europa.eu, 2021/C 66/01, consultend on 22/11/2022.

  • European Commission (2022), The European Pillar of Social Rights: state of play on the national target for 2030, https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&furtherNews=yes&newsId=10299 (consulted on 23/11/2023).

  • Federal Public Service Social Security (2023), The evolution of the social situation and social protection in Belgium 2021, https://socialsecurity.belgium.be/sites/default/files/content/docs/en/publications/silc/silc-analysis-social-situation-and-protection-belgium-2021-en.pdf (consulted on 23/11/2023).

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