Education and skills foster health and well-being, but why is this a problem?

by Dirk Van DammeHead of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division, Directorate for Education and SkillsKnowing, for example, that tobacco is bad for one’s health influences smoking behaviour much less than being able to control one’s own lifestyle. Schooling, together with non-formal and informal learning experiences, has been found to foster the acquisition of skills that matter for health...

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Lessons for France from PISA 2015

by Gabriela RamosOECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20Fifteen years ago, the OECD started evaluating education systems worldwide by testing the knowledge and competences of 15-year-old students through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Right from very first PISA exercise in 2000, we noted that although the results for France were around the OECD average, they revealed...

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Today’s the day

by Andreas SchleicherDirector, Directorate for Education and SkillsThe latest results from PISA are released today. Before you look to see how well your country performed on the triennial test of 15-year-olds students around the world, consider this: only 20 short years ago, there was no such thing as a blog. If it weren’t for science and technology, not only would you not be reading this right now, but there wouldn’t be the device on which you’re reading it – or countless other gadgets,...

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Looking forward to PISA

by Andreas SchleicherDirector, Directorate for Education and SkillsTomorrow, the OECD will publish the 2015 PISA results. The world’s premier global metric for education will tell us which countries have the best school systems, based on the performance of 15-year-olds in science, mathematics and reading over a two-hour test. PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) was introduced...

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Discover your talent!

by Deborah RoseveareHead of the Skills Beyond School Division, Directorate for Education and SkillsLast night I got a taxi home and as often happens, the driver and I got chatting. Then he asked me a rather strange question – “Do you like the smell in my car?” Well, I have to say the smell was a very subtle one but it led to a fascinating conversation.  With some pride, he told me that he was...

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To contain the cost of education, should countries only consider teachers’ salaries?

by Dirk Van DammeHead of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division, Directorate for Education and SkillsHigh-performing education systems value teachers and invest a lot in them. And indeed, the human factor is crucial in creating effective and high-quality teaching and learning environments. On average across OECD countries, the compensation of staff involved in education counted for 77% of...

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Skills are the key to unlocking prosperity in Peru

by Andreas SchleicherDirector, Directorate for Education and SkillsSkills are central to the future prosperity and well-being of Peru’s people Peru has been one of the strongest economic performers in Latin America with steady GDP per capita growth over the past decade, which has been accompanied by a sharp decline in poverty rates and a significant rise in educational attainment.This impressive track...

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New insights on teaching strategies

by Pablo Fraser Analyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsEducation’s purpose is to prepare children for a fast-moving, ever-changing world. Teaching faces the additional challenge of classrooms becoming increasingly more culturally diverse. Now, more than ever, this requires an adaptation of current teaching strategies. The recent OECD working paper Teaching strategies for instructional quality:...

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A peek at PISA

by Marilyn AchironEditor, Directorate for Education and SkillsSorry, we can’t divulge the results (those will be announced on 6 December); but now that we have your attention, we thought you might like to learn a little more about the test, itself, so that when the results are finally announced, you’ll have a better idea of what those results mean.PISA 2015 focused on science, with the understanding...

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Do men’s and women’s choices of field of study explain why women earn less than men?

by Dirk Van DammeHead of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division, Directorate for Education and SkillsFields of education are ranked in descending order of the share of men who studied in this specific field.Although we’ve observed for a long time that young men and women tend to choose different fields of study – young men are more apt than young women to pursue a degree in engineering while...

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In case you haven’t heard…

by Andreas SchleicherDirector, OECD Directorate for Education and SkillsIt’s (almost) that time again: in just a few short weeks we’ll be hearing a lot more about how well our education systems are doing compared with others around the world. On 6 December, the latest results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, better known as PISA, will be made public. If you aren’t yet sure about what PISA is or how it works, check out this new video. And watch this space: there...

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What can maths teachers learn from PISA?

by Andreas SchleicherDirector, OECD Directorate for Education and SkillsWhen we think back on schools in the 20th century, we imagine rows of students facing the front of the classroom and listening to the teacher lecture. Even though more and more education policies over the past 20 years are encouraging teachers to give students the chance to actively participate in their learning, in 2012, only...

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Empowering teachers with high-quality professional development

by Fabian Barrera-PedemonteUCL Institute of Education and Thomas J. Alexander Fellow Today marks World Teacher’s Day, which aims to address the challenge of mobilising a roadmap for teachers towards 2030. UNESCO acknowledges that a considerable intensification of effort is needed to provide sufficiently qualified, motivated and supported teachers. To underline the task ahead according to the...

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