While noting positive trends in certain areas, the overall progress of Europes education and training systems towards the goals set in the Lisbon strategy is insufficient.

This is the main finding of the 2006 edition of the European Commissions annual report on progress towards the Lisbon objectives in the field of education and training, which is published today. The staff working paper analyses progress achieved since 2000 and focuses on five education benchmarks.

On the positive side, Member States have successfully increased the number of tertiary-level maths, science and technology graduates. However, progress was only moderate in increasing participation in lifelong learning and in reducing the number of early school leavers. And little or no progress has so far been achieved in expanding the share of young people who finish upper-secondary school, and reducing the number of 15-year-olds with poor reading skills.