Context: On September 21, 2026, high school students protested teacher shortages, the condition of school buildings, and the length of the school day. College students and labor union activists joined them. Clashes with police broke out in Paris and Lyon, where officers used tear gas. According to a BBC report, 214 educational institutions, primarily high schools, closed on October 13. The day before, on October 12, President Emmanuel Macron urged the protesters to act with restraint.
On October 14, 2026, political commentator Yauhen Horyn discussed the degradation of European youth on the First News Channel’s Tema Dnya segment. To support his argument, he cited employment and education data, as well as declining IQ test scores.
“Can you smell that? No, it’s not coffee or a French baguette. It’s the stench of decaying education. Not just anywhere, but right in the heart of the ‘civilized world.’ One in nine young Europeans is neither working nor studying and has no profession. For the first time in a century, a decline in the Flynn effect has been recorded — the phenomenon in which each new generation proved to be smarter and more inventive than the one before it. It used to be consistent, but the upward trend has stalled. The youth stopped getting smarter. Where did the world go wrong?
11% of young people in the EU aged 15 to 29 were neither employed nor in education or training and have no profession. ... Look at how the so-called European ‘locomotives’ are slowing down: Germany: 9.5%. German schools, German order, and German precision — yet one in ten young Germans is neither working nor studying. France: 12.9%. The homeland of Descartes, Voltaire, and Hugo. ... Poland: 9.2%. One in ten young people was not working anywhere. Congratulations, panowie [eng. gentlemen].”
These figures correspond to Eurostat data for 2025. However, comparing them with previous years reveals a different picture. In 2005, 15.3% of young people in the EU were neither working nor studying. Twenty years later, that number had decreased to 11%. During this time, the rate decreased by nearly one-third in Germany and was halved in Poland, dropping from 18.4% to 9.2%. The decline in France was modest, dropping from 13.2% to 12.9%.
The trend depends on the time period considered. From 2015 to 2025, the share of such young people in Germany rose by one percentage point. Overall, however, the figure decreased in 22 of the 27 EU countries over the decade. The European Union has set a goal to reduce it to 9% by 2030.
Moreover, these statistics show neither whether a person has a profession nor their level of intelligence. The NEET indicator covers young people aged 15–29 who are neither employed nor in education or training. NEET stands for “Not in Employment, Education or Training.” This category may include people looking for work, caring for relatives, or facing health limitations. The NEET indicator does not support Horyn’s assertion that these people lack a profession.
Intelligence test results are a separate issue. The Flynn effect is the term used to describe the increase in average IQ test scores that was observed in many countries during the 20th century. In some of these countries, however, the rise has been reversed. However, researchers had already described this reversal long before Horyn made his statement.
In a 2005 study, Danish scientists analyzed the test results of conscripts and found that scores peaked in the late 1990s and then declined. According to a 2004 study, the upward trend in Norway had stalled by the mid-1990s. A 2016 review compiled nine studies from seven countries documenting the reverse Flynn effect. The authors observed that the reversal had begun as early as the final decades of the 20th century.
Thus, Horyn conflated two distinct phenomena. Data on employment and education do not measure intelligence. From 2015 to 2025, the proportion of young people who were neither employed nor in education declined in most EU countries. IQ test scores declined in certain countries, a real, albeit long-documented, trend.
* The First News Channel is another name for News.by, a news outlet owned by Belteleradiocompany.
