Eurydice Thematic Studies

Grade Retention during Compulsory Education in Europe: Regulations and Statistics

Date of publication: 7 February 2011
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The study compares how grade retention � making pupils repeat a school year - is applied in schools across Europe and produces an inventory of the legislations and practices in place. It shows that those practices vary greatly between countries: whether a child has to repeat a year at school depends more on the educational culture concerned and teacher appraisal than on the child's performance. It was produced for the Commission by the Eurydice network and covers 31 countries (all EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey).
Among the main findings:

• Pupils may fall behind for a year in countries where primary education admission requirements are based on maturity and development
• Lack of sufficient progress is the most common reason stated in regulations for deciding that a pupil should repeat a year
• In most countries, the major influence in the decision-making process is the opinion of teachers; parental opinion plays a minor role.
• Despite similar regulations, grade retention rates vary widely between European countries. In countries with high rates, the idea that grade retention is beneficial for pupils is still prevalent in the education community.

This issue is part of the wider struggle against school failure and early school leaving; problems which have long been priorities of national education policies and now have a high priority in the European policy agenda as shown in the latest European Commission's communication on Tackling Early school leaving.