Education is largely a national affair, but it is fast becoming a worldwide service industry too, even for publicly-funded systems. Does trade in education help and can education be traded on the global market without compromising on issues like cultural independence or quality? These questions raise important challenges for governments, educators and students alike that will grow in the years ahead.

OECD Small and Medium Enterprise Outlook

Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2002

Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States, was the keynote speaker at OECD Forum 2002 on 14 May. The theme of Forum 2002 was taking care of the fundamentals: security, equity, education and growth. All four are important, Mrs Bush told a packed audience that included many high-level guests, but all four hinge on one: education. The following two short extracts are from the First Lady’s speech, the full version of which can be found at www.oecd.org/forum2002

The findings of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment are alarming. A country with the economic and political significance of Germany belongs at the top of the league and cannot be satisfied with an education system performing at the OECD average level – never mind below it.

There can be no doubt that poverty, which was the scourge of the 20th century, continues to confront us as the pre-eminent challenge of the new century. High mortality rates claim the lives of millions of women and children. This scourge is manifested in the form of diseases, malnutrition, stunted physical and intellectual development, all of which result in grim consequences. One overriding factor is to blame: poverty.

Keynote address on education by Mrs Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States

In 2000 the British government and the Wolfson Foundation, a research charity, launched a five-year research award that raised little attention outside scientific circles. The £20 million scheme aims to attract the return of Britain’s leading expatriate scientists and the migration of top young researchers to the United Kingdom. That same year under greater media coverage, the US Congress announced it was raising the annual cap on the number of temporary work visas granted to highly skilled professionals under its H1B visa programme, from 115 000 to 195 000 per year until 2003.

The new PISA survey of student knowledge and skills tells us more than we have ever known about which education systems do well. It reveals some interesting surprises, too. The results may point to a need for improvements to education systems worldwide, though this does not mean a standardised curriculum for all countries.

Girls have overtaken boys in the literacy stakes when it comes to reading, both in their ability to understand what they read and in their tendency to read for pleasure.

Sir, OECD ministers were recently wondering about the quality and relevance of teaching, and your latest OECD Observer (No 225) takes up the matter rather thoroughly. The problem is of special interest as far as economics is concerned.

Learning your ABC is no longer enough; you can now add a D for digital, as well as an E for electronic. But while information technology has changed society, school has changed hardly at all.

There has been much talk but precious little action about the coming of “virtual learning”. This might be about to change, although challenges remain.

The knowledge society requires not only a higher level of basic education than in the past, but also new kinds of expertise and reliable means to measure them, OECD education ministers agreed at a two-day meeting in Paris in April. They urged the OECD to develop more educational indicators to measure such elements adult life and progress in achieving the goal of lifelong learning. One key issue is the quality of teaching and the status of the teaching profession.

“For two years, Johnny, a quiet 13-year-old, was a human plaything for some of his classmates. The teenagers badgered Johnny for money, forced him to swallow weeds and drink milk mixed with detergent, beat him up in the restroom and tied a string around his neck, leading him around as a ‘pet’. When Johnny’s torturers were interrogated about the bullying, they said they pursued their victim because it was fun.”

Lifelong learning has to start at a young age and so it does in many OECD countries, with universal enrolment (more than 90%) at five or six years of age in the majority of OECD members. And in some countries virtually all three to four-year- olds are already enrolled in pre-primary or primary programmes.

The role of education in contributing to a fairer society has always been double-edged. When successful in widening participation in learning, its contribution is powerful and positive. But too often, it can have the opposite effect of being socially selective, even divisive. Policy strategies need to work with this dual focus – reinforcing inclusion and participation while tackling out-dated forms of selection. In 21st century society, this longstanding equity goal for education takes on new urgency.

The teaching workforce is ageing. A considerable number of countries already have an old teaching force, with 49% of teachers in upper secondary education in Sweden aged 50 and over. Moreover, recent signs point to a worsening of the situation in several other countries, such as Germany and New Zealand.

Teachers in OECD countries generally do not have sufficient command of information and communications technology (ICT) for educational purposes, particularly when they are using the Internet. That at least was the verdict of 29 students from OECD countries who met with OECD policymakers and experts in Aix-en-Provence, France last December.

Well-designed schools and campuses may have a role to play in improving educational quality. A new OECD publication* looks at 55 establishments in OECD countries selected by an international jury for the way they have adapted to a constantly changing teaching and learning environment. The schools were selected from 90 schools and universities in 21 countries offered to illustrate themes such as schools for a communications society, school buildings and the environment, libraries and educational resources or establishments for higher education.

New technologies were for a long time confined to specific occupations and sectors of the economy, but they are now in widespread use. They have become an integral part of daily life and are radically changing trade and the development of communications around the world. Individual levels of education and training are also constantly rising. If the knowledge economy is to expand, every individual – not only those in work – will have to be able to use, handle or produce information. Mastering new skills has become a necessity outside the workplace, to watch interactive television, use the Internet or simply withdraw money at a cash point.

Reducing class sizes may not necessarily lead to improved educational performance, France’s advisory Haut Conseil de l’Evaluation de l’Ecole has warned, throwing doubt on a 30-year-old pillar of national education policy. The report, delivered in March to the French education minister, Jack Lang, said that smaller class sizes can have an effect in underprivileged areas, but only at primary level and only if the cut is drastic.

Since I arrived at the OECD in 1996, I have participated in more conferences on more issues than I would have imagined possible. These many and varied meetings focused on almost every area of public policy. Without exaggeration, I can report that in all cases a common thread of consensus was education as the fundamental building block of social and economic progress. Would this have been the case, say, 100 or even 50 years ago? I doubt it.

The public education systems woven into the fabric of 20th century welfare states prepared populations to contribute to society and shaped national identity. But the industrial society and the nation state that prompted their existence have had their day, giving way to the new economy and globalisation.

Teachers need more training in new technologies but should not be replaced by computer terminals, students from OECD countries told educational policymakers at a meeting in December. The 28 students, aged 17-20, were worried that many teachers were ignorant not only of the technical aspects of the new technologies, but also about how to use them as an effective learning tool. This can lead to tension between self-directed learning using computers at home and activity within school, the students told the meeting, which was one of the first of its kind, set up to get students’ views on new technology in education. The students also raised the question of the quality of the information being provided via new technologies. They said many CD-ROMs cover a subject with great breadth but not depth, and that much time can be wasted searching on the Internet, with no guarantee of the authenticity of the information recovered. And while computers provide enormous learning potential when used wisely, they do not and should not displace books, teachers and basic human interactions.

”You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is an adage past its prime, or at least that is what neuroscientists are beginning to argue in brain science. As recently as 1997, it was “ generally accepted that formative learning takes place only in the first three years of life. But new research helped by technological breakthroughs show this not to be the case. In fact, the evidence shows that the possible loss of neurons after age 40 can be offset by stimulating the brain regularly. In other words, as with muscles, targeted exercise can bring learning benefits at any time in a life. This brain plasticity, or the capacity for lifelong learning, is an exciting finding for cognitive scientists, and is now just starting to influence educational policymaking.