IEA INSIDER 2025
Reaching Toward European Education Goals Interview with Philippe Cattoir
BY KATIE ZUBER
THE COMMISSION HAS FUNDED UP TO 75 PERCENT OF INTERNATIONAL COSTS FOR ICILS AND ICCS VIA ERASMUS+. HOW HAS THIS SHAPED THE INTEGRATION OF DIGITAL LITERACY AND CIVIC COMPETENCE DATA INTO EU-LEVEL MONITORING? Since the early 2000s, when the Lisbon Objectives set out shared European education goals, the European Commission has worked with Member States to agree on priorities and track progress. ICILS and ICCS offer something national surveys often cannot: comparable data across countries and over time. With the Basic Skills Action Plan for 2025 now recognizing digital and civic competences alongside literacy, mathematics, and science, demand for robust evidence in these areas has grown. The Commission co-funds about 75 percent of the international costs for EU and Erasmus+ associated countries to join ICILS and ICCS. This support lowers financial barriers and has had a clear impact. ICILS participation rose from seven EU countries in 2018, when there was no EU funding, to over 20 in 2023. ICCS is also expanding, with 22 Member States confirmed for 2027. Since last year, the process has been simplified: instead of each country applying for Erasmus+ grants, the Commission provides a single grant to IEA, leaving national authorities to pay only the discounted rate.
ICILS data have already underpinned an EU benchmark: by 2030, fewer than 15 percent of eighth-graders should be low-achievers in computer and information literacy. ICCS results are not linked to an adopted target, but a target based on them was proposed in the recent interim evaluation of the European Education Area (EEA) strategic framework . They are increasingly used in EU reporting to monitor civic competences and inform policy debate. HOW IS THE COMMISSION USING ICILS 2023 DATA TO INFORM POLICY DISCUSSIONS? ICILS 2023 revealed that over 40 percent of EU teenagers lack basic digital skills (they achieved less than level 2 in the Computer and Information Literacy (CIL) scale of ICILS 2023). This evidence is feeding directly into policy debates. The Digital Education Action Plan (2021–2027) uses them to pinpoint where education systems must act—modernizing curricula, improving digital learning environments, and strengthening teacher training. The 2025 Education and Training Monitor , due on 13 November, will feature a dedicated section on digital skills, using ICILS 2023 as a reference point. The survey provides more than a measure of progress: it turns the ambition of digital literacy into concrete, actionable objectives.
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