OECD: schools under exam

In OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with headquarters in Paris) over 12% of public expenditure is invested in education. However, international studies such as the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (the so-called program “PISA”) highlighted significant differences in the way of spending financial resources and in the results of investment in education. These are the findings of the OECD report “Going for Growth 2015”, which presents a detailed overview of some 450 reforms in education that have been adopted across all 34 OECD countries between 2008 and 2014. We hereby focus on a snapshot of the European situation. One in 5 students lacks “competence.” In OECD countries, which include large parts of Europe, North America and Australia, almost one fifteen-year-old student in five fails to acquire the minimum skills needed for full participation in society. About 16% of recent reforms aim at ensuring quality and equity in education. Many countries have given priority to policies that support disadvantaged students or schools enrolling students from different origins, such as England with the “Pupil Premium” initiative. Poland, however, aims to extend enrolment rates and to improve the quality of school education and nurseries. Approximately 29% of the measures envisaged by the reforms examined in the report seek to better prepare students for the future: many countries have focused their efforts on measures to improve quality and value of their education and vocational training (Vet) programs or to expand practical training in the workplace and apprenticeship. Portugal, to take another example, has introduced a holistic strategy for education and vocational training, while Denmark and Sweden have reformed their educational and vocational training programs. Many countries – according to the report – have also introduced policies designed to ensure that students will find a job or be able to continue their studies. National frameworks on qualifications have been revised, often in collaboration with the European Union, in order to increase the “transparency” of education systems. Priorities to teachers. Countries have focused on improving school establishments (24% of reform measures examined in the study address this specific aspect), so as to “develop a positive learning environment, attract high-level teaching staff and ensure they stay on.” Policies for teachers have been a priority: to this end, the Netherlands has developed a program dedicated to teachers. France has focused on improving initial teacher training, while Finland has taken measures to create a system of professional development for school staff. Other northern European countries have reformed their syllabuses. Valuation and “governance”. School systems are based on the evaluation and measurement of results to guide their reform efforts: about 14% of the policies in question have addressed this dimension of education. Italy, with its “Vales” program, has introduced policies to develop tools and processes to support internal and external evaluations of schools. Since the governance of education systems is becoming more complex (9% of the reforms in the this data collection focuses on this issue), some countries have developed  “holistic” approaches to their education systems (it is the case of the Folkeshole reform in Denmark) or have perfected roles and responsibilities, either by creating new institutions, or by reorganizing local governance arrangements (Estonia). The reforms of education funding – which account for 12% of all the reform measures examined in the OECD report – were circulated at the level of the education system (with the initiative “Investing in the Future” in Germany) and at the level of individual schools (the reforms in Belgium concerning funding of educational institutions). Quality reforms. “The reform of the education sector will only be effective if the policies are implemented properly,” cautions OECD. This means that “support to reforms in results assessment and evaluation, requires a coherent framework with appropriate capabilities to conduct and interpret the feedback at all levels of the education system.” To be successfully introduced, innovations in learning environments must also “face the learning and teaching questions in concrete terms.” Finally, in order to improve the quality of education provided by schools, “policies must focus on the evolution of the practices in the classroom, on the balance of pressures and external support and on the development and achievement of long term goals.”