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17.05.2012
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Reinventing Education

The Challenge

Global competition and the global financial crisis have put additional pressures on education programs around the world—what they should deliver, how they should be delivered and how they should be financed in terms of the relative contributions of the public and private sectors. Getting the correct balance of skills needed to achieve economic growth and getting these skills delivered by education are challenges that are not helped by the lack of good “education metrics”, which could allow policy-makers to learn from their own and other countries’ educational experiences.

In more developed economies, challenges related to education are about ageing societies, highly indebted governments and stagnant labor markets; in many other countries, the challenges include the development of decent educational systems and making the best use of limited resources.

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So far however, the use of evidence based analyses responding to these challenges is rare. There have been successes using metric measurements, with some studies clearly demonstrating how data gathering can help to improve policy decisions. In particular, the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a better understanding of what drives educational achievements in different countries. A variety of other datasets exploring diverse issues associated with education are available while others are under construction.

Should business and policy-makers be guided by measures of human capital (overall skills) rather than measures of “years in schooling” (for example, PISA, 2010)? Should policy aim for increased linking of education investments with economic performance (for example, PIAAC, the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies)?

How should schools be funded with tightening public budgets? Can business make money out of education? If the returns to fee-paying schools attract business investment, are graduates from private schools equipped with skills that employers really need? What type of education helps graduates and school leavers contribute most towards economic growth?

Background Paper

Reinventing Education

Godart, O., Hanley, A. (2011)

Abstract

Global competition and the recent economic crisis have put additional pressures on how and what education programs should deliver. President Obama has pointed out how cutting edge and effective education helps a country maintain its global competitive position: "the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow."

What is the optimal public/private sector contribution? Can business make money out of education? Are graduates/ school leavers equipped with skills that employers really need? How do we ensure that the children of poorly educated parents escape from the poverty cycle? These problems are not helped by the lack of effective 'education metrics'. Our background paper seeks to find out whether recent advances in education research can help to shed light on some of these questions.

Proposed Solutions