Starting from the 2009/10 school year and especially after mid-2010, quite a few countries were obliged to apply salary cuts for teachers and other public employees.

78. Considers that, in the context of the European Semester and in order to implement effectively Employment Guidelines 7 to 10, Member States should be encouraged to attach special importance to specific issues, such as facilitating young people's access to education, guidance and training and preventing early school-leaving, promoting lifelong learning, promoting employment and reducing unemployment, especially among young people, promoting integration of older people into the labour market, combating undeclared work, facilitating reconciliation of work and family life and improving childcare facilities;

22. Considers that, in the context of the European Semester and in order to implement effectively Employment Guidelines 7 to 10, Member States should be encouraged to attach special importance to specific issues, such as facilitating young people’s access to education, guidance and training and preventing early school-leaving, promoting lifelong learning, promoting employment and reducing unemployment, especially among young people, promoting integration of older people into the labour market, combating undeclared work, facilitating reconciliation of work and family life and improving childcare facilities;

78. Considers that, in the context of the European Semester and in order to implement effectively Employment Guidelines 7 to 10, Member States should be encouraged to attach special importance to specific issues, such as facilitating young people’s access to education, guidance and training and preventing early school-leaving, promoting lifelong learning, promoting employment and reducing unemployment, especially among young people, promoting integration of older people into the labour market, combating undeclared work, facilitating reconciliation of work and family life and improving childcare facilities;

On a broader level, progress toward the EU headline target of reducing early school leaving to below 10%, along with progress towards all the objectives and targets of the Europe 2020 strategy, will be monitored regularly during the first half of each year in the context of the ‘European semester’.

I had to work very quickly one night to get a submission in to Treasury Board; otherwise, there were literally going to be no books, no teaching materials, nothing for the whole semester that was beginning last month in Kenya.