Although in steady decline in recent years , the dropout remains for most countries a major concern. Measured at European level as the proportion of people aged 18 to 24 having only the level of lower secondary education or a lower level and who are no longer in education or training, it is a real challenge for social cohesion and equity of educational systems.
Many studies insist indeed on costs that the lack of equity in education generates in terms of health, social benefits or to society in general.
The countries of the European Union now attach great importance to the problem of school dropouts. In 2009, the Education Council of the European Union, in the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training ("ET 2020"), fixed the average rate of young people leaving school early to less than 10%. This rate stands today at 11.1% down to 2.8% from 2010, reflecting the fact that all Member States have now introduced measures to reduce early school leaving. But significant disparities remain between but also within Member States.