EU countries have improved their education systems in key areas over the past decade, but they have achieved only one out of five benchmarks set for 2010, the European Commission's new progress report on education and training reveals.

The EU has succeeded in its target to increase the number of maths, science, and technology graduates, with a 37% rise since 2000 - easily outstripping the target of 15%. Significant, but inadequate, progress was made in reducing the school drop-out rate, increasing the number of pupils completing upper-secondary education, improving reading literacy skills, and increasing the share of adults participating in education or training.

The report, covering all EU Member States, plus Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Turkey, Norway, and Liechtenstein, contains overviews and detailed statistics identifying which countries perform above or below the EU average and which are catching up or falling behind compared to the others.

Further information can be found in the newly released country reports on the situation of Adult Education and Lifelong Learning for each of the European member countries.

The reports are divided into two sections. "Policy and Politics" gives an overview of the key policy currently in force and also outlines the main legislation or political situation in the country. "Structure and Providers" gives a more detailed look at the specific structure of organization and also outlines the main adult-education providers, including non-formal learning, NGOs, eLearning, and formal learning.

These texts have been produced using the latest reports and information current at the last date of update in 2010.