ZAGREB, December 9, 2018 - Croatia has the best results among all the EU member-states when it comes to reducing early school leaving in the age cohort 18-24, however, its results in the other five benchmarks are not so good, according to the findings of the European Commission's publication "Education and Training Monitor".
In 2017, Croatia's dropout rate was 3.1%, which was in line with the EU target to have dropout rates throughout the Union below 10%. Last year, that average rate in the EU stood at 10.6%.
In terms of the benchmark called "Early childhood education and care from age 4 to starting age of compulsory primary education, Croatia legs behind the EU target of 95%, given that 75.1% of Croatian children in that age cohort were covered by early education.
Education Minister Blaženka Divjak, who attended the presentation of the publication, said that her department in cooperation with other ministries was investing efforts to bring Croatia closer to that target.
Stefaan Hermans, Director of Policy Strategy and Evaluation in the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture at the European Commission, said that investing into education means investing into the future.
The publication reads that "Croatia’s spending on education and training remains at the EU average, with a strong focus on primary and tertiary education. The percentage of GDP spent on education and training in 2016 increased slightly by 0.1 percentage points to 4.8 % (EU average 4.7 %) and stands just above the pre-crisis high in 2008."
In Croatia, the proportion of 15-year-olds underachieving in Reading, Maths and Science was still worse than in the EU on average.
When it comes to adult participation in learning (age 25-64), Croatia's rate was a mere 2.3%, as against the EU average rate of 10.9%, and the benchmark is 15%.
For more on education in Croatia, visit over dedicated section.
