Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Must try harder: recovering from educational inequality

Shane Markowitz 19th January 2021

School closures during the pandemic have hit socially excluded students hard. The EU needs to ensure every child can reach their potential.

educational inequality,inclusive education
Shane Markowitz

Ten months on since the pandemic began shuttering schools across Europe, wide gulfs in access to education have been laid bare. Children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, in particular, have endured considerable setbacks to their learning.

According to a European Commission report, this loss of schooling in vulnerable communities is expected to culminate in lower retention and completion rates. With education closely linked to health and social mobility, poorer job prospects, increased poverty and reduced life expectancy are likely down the road. The situation is compounded by a youth mental-health crisis brought on by the pandemic.

The European Pillar of Social Rights opens by specifying that all Europeans have an integral ‘right to quality and inclusive education’. Though conventionally a member-state purview, the crisis underscores the need for the European Union to devote additional resources towards ensuring that every child can reach their full potential.

Remote learning

The first wave of the pandemic saw schools throughout Europe, with few exceptions, switch from in-person instruction to remote learning. Though many governments had sought to avoid a repeat, stringent winter lockdowns have recently seen schools once again become a casualty of the virus.

The shift to online education has proved detrimental, with an average weekly learning loss of around 0.82-2.3 per cent estimated in France, Germany, and Italy during the spring. The effects have been especially calamitous for children from marginalised communities.

Over 10 per cent of students, the majority hailing from socio-economically disadvantaged families, have been cut off from education altogether in some European countries. In Romania, a survey by Caritas revealed that only 3 per cent of Roma children had participated in online lessons. Even in countries whose education systems take pride in equality—such as Finland and Denmark—schools have struggled to include children from low-income households, including many from migrant backgrounds.



Don't miss out on cutting-edge thinking.


Join tens of thousands of informed readers and stay ahead with our insightful content. It's free.



Numerous barriers exist. Access to technology is one. While nearly all students attending advantaged schools in the EU have access to computers for schoolwork, the proportion falls to around 80 per cent in disadvantaged schools in Greece, Slovakia and Hungary. Remote learning has, consequently, seen children from impoverished households compete with multiple siblings for access to electronic devices—often mobile phones—to complete assignments.

Loan programmes for electronic devices have been introduced by some governments but advocates point out that these haven’t always reached the most vulnerable children. Even when they do, gaps in digital literacy hinder many students and families from optimally using them.

Other obstacles include the lack of quiet spaces for learning, with multiple household members sharing one or two rooms, and a higher likelihood that children from vulnerable communities are left to utilise educational materials themselves, without parental supervision and emotional support.

Educational poverty

Though now put in plain sight, inequalities in education in the EU are not new. Indeed educational poverty, measured by students failing to achieve minimum national standards, has grown throughout Europe since 2000, according to a 2018 World Bank report. Among socio-economically disadvantaged students, 47 per cent fail to demonstrate basic proficiency in mathematics, compared with 22.5 per cent of all EU students.

The 2018 report of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that socio-economic status alone accounted for 13.8 per cent of maths performance across all OECD member states and more than 20 per cent in Belgium, France, Hungary and Slovakia. The figures for reading were little better, with wide disparities between the most affluent and poorest children, including a four-year gap in France, Germany and Hungary. Only 8 per cent of European students from the lowest socio-economic strata, furthermore, achieved top or high-level PISA scores, compared with double-digit figures for the general population in many EU countries.

Educational inequality is also reflected in lower retention of disadvantaged students. The likelihood of a student leaving school early due to social background is 25.5 per cent in Slovakia, 23.9 per cent in Bulgaria and 18.7 per cent in Romania.

Many factors are at play. They include availability of educational resources at home and in school, access to preschool programmes and school segregation between peers from different socio-economic groups, which often leaves poorer children in demotivating learning environments.

Adequate resources

The EU has not yet lived up to its promise of inclusive education and the pandemic has only pushed that goal further from reach. To fulfil its commitments, the union should allocate adequate resources to the challenge.

In the short-term, this means generating funding for an EU-wide, emergency ‘recovery plan’ for children whose education has been severely hampered. The ‘catch-up tuition’ programme in England, which provides additional tutoring opportunities for students most afflicted by Covid-19, could be a model worth emulating.

Over the long haul, however, the EU should design a supranational programme, potentially as a top-up to the European Social Fund Plus, aimed at permanently eradicating persistent gaps in learning. Lessons from educational initiatives in Estonia, Finland and Ireland could be heeded.

In Finland and Ireland, funding formulae channel additional resources, including teaching assistants and digital technology, to schools with large concentrations of disadvantaged students. Ireland’s programme also provides for socio-emotional support and school meals. Both programmes have been credited with helping improve performance among poorer students.

Reductions in school segregation will also be key, with data showing that vulnerable students enrolled in advantaged schools perform significantly better than their peers in disadvantaged schools. Estonia has indeed rocketed to the top of educational equality globally—and overtaken Finland as the top PISA performer in Europe—through measures such as free early childhood education, free school lunches and the classroom integration of students at different levels, abilities and economic backgrounds. The EU could incentivise best practices by diverting additional grants to countries which achieve satisfactory social integration in schools.

It would be all too easy to leave the problem of educational inequality to already cash-strapped national and municipal governments. But that would betray the commitments the EU has made and leave millions of children in the lurch, dependent on the political whims of their leaders. Through concerted action, however, the union can improve well-being for all students and put Europe on course towards a competitive, inclusive and resilient future.

Pics 4
Shane Markowitz

Shane Markowitz is an assistant professor at the Institute of European Studies and International Relations at Comenius University and an associate fellow at the GLOBSEC Policy Institute in Bratislava, where he conducts research on the future of Europe.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u4219834dafae1dc3 2 EU’s New Fiscal Rules: Balancing Budgets with Green and Digital AmbitionsPhilipp Heimberger
u42198346d1f0048 1 The Dangerous Metaphor of Unemployment “Scarring”Tom Boland and Ray Griffin
u4219834675 4ff1 998a 404323c89144 1 Why Progressive Governments Keep Failing — And How to Finally Win Back VotersMariana Mazzucato
u42198346ec 111f 473a 80ad b5d0688fffe9 1 A Transatlantic Reckoning: Why Europe Needs a New Pact Beyond Defence SpendingChristophe Sente
u4219834671f 3 Trade Unions Resist EU Bid to Weaken Corporate Sustainability LawsSocial Europe

Most Popular Articles

u4219834647f 0894ae7ca865 3 Europe’s Businesses Face a Quiet Takeover as US Investors CapitaliseTej Gonza and Timothée Duverger
u4219834674930082ba55 0 Portugal’s Political Earthquake: Centrist Grip Crumbles, Right AscendsEmanuel Ferreira
u421983467e58be8 81f2 4326 80f2 d452cfe9031e 1 “The Universities Are the Enemy”: Why Europe Must Act NowBartosz Rydliński
u42198346761805ea24 2 Trump’s ‘Golden Era’ Fades as European Allies Face Harsh New RealityFerenc Németh and Peter Kreko
startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

With a comprehensive set of relevant indicators, presented in 85 graphs and tables, the 2025 Benchmarking Working Europe report examines how EU policies can reconcile economic, social and environmental goals to ensure long-term competitiveness. Considered a key reference, this publication is an invaluable resource for supporting European social dialogue.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
The evolution of working conditions in Europe

This episode of Eurofound Talks examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation.

Mary McCaughey speaks with Barbara Gerstenberger, Eurofound's Head of Unit for Working Life, who leverages insights from the 35-year history of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out!


It is time to take action and to forge a path towards a Socialist renewal.


European Socialists struggle to balance their responsibilities with the need to take bold positions and actions in the face of many major crises, while far-right political parties are increasingly gaining ground. Against this background, we offer European progressive forces food for thought on projecting themselves into the future.


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss the transformative power of European Social Democracy, examine the far right’s efforts to redesign education systems to serve its own political agenda and highlight the growing threat of anti-gender movements to LGBTIQ+ rights – among other pressing topics.

READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

S&D Group in the European Parliament advertisement

Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

BlueskyXWhatsApp