Five myths about education, debunked

By Andreas Schleicher

Director, Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: Shutterstock

It’s so much easier to educate students for our past than for their future. Schools are inherently conservative social systems; as parents we get nervous when our children learn things we don’t understand, and even more so when they no longer study things that were so important for us. Teachers are more comfortable teaching how they were taught than how they were taught to teach. And, as a politician, you can lose an election over education issues, but you can rarely win one, because it takes far more than an election cycle to translate intentions into results.

So changing education bureaucracies seems like moving graveyards: it’s often hard to rely on the people out there to help, because the status quo has so many protectors. The biggest risk to schooling today isn’t its inefficiency, but that our way of schooling is losing its purpose and relevance. And when fast gets really fast, being slower to adapt makes education systems really slow and disoriented.

We live in a world in which the kind of things that are easy to teach and test have also become easy to digitise and automate. Education has won the race with technology throughout history, but there is no guarantee it will do so in the future. Students growing up with a great smartphone but a poor education will face unprecedented risks. When we could still assume that what we learn in school will last for a lifetime, teaching content knowledge and routine cognitive skills was rightly at the centre of education. Today, the world no longer rewards you for what you know – Google knows everything – but for what you can do with what you know. If all we do is teach our children what we know, they may remember enough to follow in our footsteps. But it is only if we help them build a reliable compass and navigation skills that they will be able to go anywhere and find their way through this increasingly complex, volatile and ambiguous world.

One of the reasons why we get stuck in education is that our thinking is framed by so many myths. So I start my new book, World Class: Building a 21st-century school system, by debunking some of the most common.

• “The poor will always do badly in school.” That’s not true: the 10% most disadvantaged kids in Shanghai do better in maths than the 10% most advantaged students in large American cities.

• “Immigrants will lower the performance of a country on international comparisons.” That’s not true: there is no relationship between the share of immigrant students and the quality of an education system; and the school systems in which immigrant students settle matter a lot more than the country where they came from. 

• “Smaller classes mean better results.” That’s not true: whenever high-performing education systems have to make a choice between a smaller class and a better teacher, they go for the latter. Often it is small classes that have created the Taylorist culture where teachers end up doing nothing other than teaching, and don’t have the time to support individual students, collaborate with other teaching professionals or work with parents – activities that are hallmarks of high-performing education systems. 

• “More time spent learning always means better results.” That’s not true: students in Finland spend little more than around half the number of hours studying than what students in the United Arab Emirates spend; but students in Finland learn a lot in a short time, while students in the United Arab Emirates learn very little in a lot of time. 

• “The results in PISA are merely a reflection of culture.” That’s not true: rapidly improving education systems did not change their culture but their education policies and practices. 

Why is our thinking so captured by myths and past practice? Because education systems have a habit of building “walls” that separate teachers, schools or the systems themselves from peer learning. When I started PISA, the central idea was to break those walls. The idea was to count what counts – that is, to collect high-quality data and combine that with information on wider social outcomes; to analyse that data to empower educators and researchers to make more informed decisions; and to harness collaborative power to act on the data, both by lowering the cost of political action, and at times by raising the cost of political inaction, as well.

The good news is that our knowledge about what works in education has improved vastly. In my book, I write extensively about what makes school systems successful, and what makes high-performing school systems different.

Still, knowledge is only as valuable as our capacity to act on it. To transform schooling at scale, we need not just a radical vision of what is possible, but also smart strategies to help drive change. The road of education reform is littered with good ideas that were poorly implemented. The laws, regulations, structures and institutions on which education leaders tend to focus are just like the small tip of an iceberg.

The reason it is so hard to move school systems is that there is a much larger invisible part under the waterline. This invisible part is about the interests, beliefs, motivations and fears of the people who are involved in education, including parents and teachers. This is where unexpected collisions occur, because this part of education reform tends to evade the radar of public policy. That is why education leaders are rarely successful with reform unless they build a shared understanding and collective ownership for change; and unless they build capacity and create the right policy climate, with accountability measures designed to encourage innovation rather than compliance.

Our task is not to make the impossible possible, but to make the possible attainable. 

Many teachers and schools are ready for change. To encourage their growth, policy needs to shift towards inspiring and enabling innovation, identifying and sharing best practice. Such a shift will need to be built on trust: trust in education, in educational institutions, in schools and teachers, in students and communities. Trust is an essential part of good governance in all public services, and a key determinant of where great people want to work. But trust cannot be legislated and mandated; that is why it is so hard to build into traditional administrative structures. And trust is always intentional. Trust can only be nurtured and inspired through healthy relationships and constructive transparency. That is the lesson we can all learn from Finland, where opinion polls consistently show high levels of public trust in education. At a time when command-and-control systems are weakening, building trust is the most promising way to advance and fuel modern education systems.

In the face of all these challenges, we don’t need to be passive. While technology and globalisation have disruptive implications for our economic and social structure, these implications are not predetermined. Their outcomes will be determined by our collective response to these disruptions – the interplay between the technological frontier and the cultural, social, institutional and economic agents that we mobilise in response. We have agency, the ability to anticipate and frame our actions with purpose, and to devise and execute a plan to achieve that purpose.

I decided to write this book when I saw children from the poorest neighborhoods of Shanghai learning from Shanghai’s best teachers. It was then that I realised that universal, high-quality education is an attainable goal, and that our task is not to make the impossible possible, but to make the possible attainable. This is not rocket science; it is entirely within our means to deliver a future for millions of learners who currently don’t have one.



World Class: Building a 21st century school system is available as a free download here.

Why social emotional learning matters for migrant students and how schools can help

By Andreas Schleicher, Director, Directorate for Education and Skills

and John McLaughlin,  Deputy Education & Early Childhood Development Minister, New Brunswick

Photo credit: Feliphe Schiarolli/Unsplash

The world is experiencing major geopolitical, economic, environmental and social shifts resulting in increased international migration. In turn, migration flows are having a snowball effect on cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity in many of today's classrooms, particularly in cities and large metropolitan areas. As a result, calls for schools to help their students develop social and emotional skills – in addition to strong academic skills – are growing louder. Social and emotional skills are crucial for a child’s ability to thrive in complex, interconnected and highly diverse environments in and outside of school. Additionally, the OECD’s own work has shown that these skills are crucial assets for the working environments of the 21^st  century.

We should view migration flows not only as a challenge, but also as an opportunity. If we work together to support our teachers and principals while having an open mind, a bold and ambitious heart, and a kind and welcoming spirit, we can reshape our schools and adapt our classrooms – and ourselves – to better meet the needs of today’s children and tomorrow’s citizens.

As a result of the unique challenges immigrant and refugee children face, many have distinct social and emotional needs. For example, some students may have experienced trauma fleeing war-torn countries during their migration. Others may have been separated from their immediate or extended family, leaving them with feelings of guilt and shame about loved ones left behind. Community ties were broken for all children who have experienced migration,  and the resulting stress can have a lasting impact on their socio-emotional development. Even when parents are present, they might be overwhelmed by their own experience of displacement,leaving them unable to support their children’s social and emotional development.

Migrant children have to negotiate new roles and identities in an unfamiliar cultural context. Some are called to demonstrate allegiance to their native or host country when choosing which language to speak, which sport to practice, which music to listen to, or which social group to join. They also have to juggle the attitudes and stereotypes of numerous different social groups and find where they fit in. Adjusting to their new environment can be a long bumpy road, but through the support of teachers, school principals, other education professionals and communities migrant children can navigate the difficult transition.

Diversity can be an opportunity for students without an immigrant background to develop social and emotional skills.

At the same time, diversity can also be an opportunity for students without an immigrant background to develop social and emotional skills. This includes self-awareness  of their own attitudes, stereotypes and emotions; social awareness, which enables them to empathise with others from diverse environments; the capacity to manage diverse social relationships by making constructive choices about how to act and behave in social interactions; and social engagement, which reflects their desire to contribute to the well-being of their school and community.

In an effort to address these challenges, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development of New Brunswick in Canada, the Directorate for Education and Skills at the OECD and the Council of Education Ministers in Canada have organised a policy forum on the theme: “Social Emotional Learning to Foster a Sense of Belonging for Immigrant and Refugee Learners”.  On May 31^stand June 1^st, a group of international experts, practitioners, school leaders, teachers and policy makers will convene in Fredericton, Canada to consider how learning from past practices could help change the future of education and support the social and emotional learning of migrant and refugee children.

In the spirit of the OECD’s Strength through Diversity initiative, international and Canadian participants will bring  a wide range of perspectives to this forum, given their diverse roles, responsibilities and backgrounds. The aim is not only to advance our understanding of what has happened so far and discuss what may come next; we also hope to create an international community that promotes effective school policies and practices to support migrant and refugee learners.

This forum will be the fourth in a series organised by the OECD’s Strength through Diversity project. Speakers will introduce key themes during small group discussions and exercises, as well as roundtables and panel discussions. The meeting will cover five key themes:

• The role of education in social and emotional learning and sense of belonging; 
• Language for social cohesion; 
• Culturally responsive teaching practices;
• Retention of immigrant children and education for global citizens; 
• Whether ICT and digital technologies are tools for fostering or threatening integration. 

The programme will, for the first time in the series, include school visits,  and on the first evening, participants will have the opportunity to meet community leaders, community organisers, and students from immigrant or refugee backgrounds, at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery reception.

The keynote address will be given by Dean Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Wasserman Dean at the Graduate School of Education and Information Services, University of California – Los Angeles. Other speakers will include:

• Stefaan Hermans, Director for Policy Strategy and Evaluation in the European Commission's Directorate for Education Youth Sports and Culture 
• Professor Veronica Boix Mansilla, Harvard University 
• Professor Benedicta Egbo,University of Windsor 
• Professor Stacey Wilson-Forsberg, Wilfrid Laurier University 
• Dr. Angelica Galante, University of Toronto  
• Letitia Zwickert, high school teacher, Fulbright Specialist in Education and founder of MENTEE.

Lessons arising from the meeting will be shared in a proceedings document published on the Strength through Diversity website. We encourage all to read the proceedings when they are published, and we invite everyone to follow the meeting through live broadcasts on May 31^st (13:00 GMT to 23:00 GMT) and June 1^st (17:00 GMT).

In the spirit of the motto “stronger together”, we wish a productive forum and insightful discussions to all those who will travel to Fredricton. And to those joining us remotely: enjoy the show!


Read more: 

• Strength through Diversity - 4th Policy Forum, 31 May-1 June 2018

Where will tomorrow's graduates come from?

By Marie-Helene Doumet

Senior Analyst, Directorate for Education and Skills

Knowledge has become the new currency of today’s economy. Digitalisation, technological innovation and globalisation have together made intellectual capital the most important asset in today’s era, and countries have responded by increasing access to higher education like never before.

By the end of the 20th century, the United States was the highest supplier of tertiary graduates in the world. Around the same time, the share of 25-34 year-olds holding a higher education degree reached above 40% in only two OECD countries: Canada and Japan. But no one would have disputed back then that the two population giants, China and India, would one day play a major role in supplying the world’s graduates. By 2015, 37 million young adults held a higher education degree in China and 30 million in India. Together, they represent 40% of the total pool of tertiary-educated young adults worldwide, more than the EU and the Americas combined.

And it does not stop there. The latest Education Indicators in Focus shows that despite adverse demographic trends, tertiary education attainment among young adults is set to increase in all regions. Globally, this means there will be 22% more tertiary graduates by 2030.

But, interestingly, the growth will not come from China, whose declining population tends to just about balance out any increase in tertiary attainment. As the figure above shows, it is in fact India, with its rising population and emphasis on education, which is set to surpass China as the largest provider of tertiary graduates in the next decade, supplying the world with more than a fifth of its talent. Latin American countries will also account for a large part of the growth, as tertiary graduates in the region are set to double over the next ten years. Russia, on the other hand, will be facing a decline in its tertiary-educated workforce.

What students study will become paramount to sustain the productive growth of the economy.

With such a steep rise in credentials, what students study will become paramount to sustain the productive growth of the economy. Science, technology, engineering, and maths, also known as STEM, have recently been at the forefront of education policy as the backbone of this knowledge economy. Not only are China and India currently the largest contributors to the graduate pool worldwide, but they are also the countries with the highest share of students graduating from a STEM field of study. More than 35% of graduates in China and India hold a degree in a STEM field – more than double the average share from OECD countries. The employment advantage of engineering and information technology, compared to other fields of study, also suggests that supply is yet to meet demand in a number of OECD countries.

Employers on the ground are beginning to feel the impact of this trend. Recent studies have demonstrated that employers are finding it more difficult to recruit the skills they need in their workforce, with engineers and IT scientists among the jobs facing the most shortages. A number of countries have started to look beyond their own borders towards an increasingly mobile international student population in order to fill the gap. Outsourcing software development or engineering work to foreign companies has also become common across a number of sectors.

With the growing number of tertiary graduates, and their increasing willingness to study and work abroad, it is undeniable that competition for talent has intensified. But perhaps a more subtle phenomenon is that the higher supply of graduates is leveling out the playing field of qualifications. In our fast-paced, volatile and uncertain world, a degree on its own is not as much of a predictor of skills as it used to be; what students learn in classrooms today may even become obsolete tomorrow. Those who succeed will be those who have gone beyond the curriculum to cultivate softer skills such as problem solving, creativity, or critical thinking – and, above all, the capacity to adapt, be flexible, and never stop learning.


Read more:

Education Indicators in Focus - No. 61: How is the tertiary-educated population evolving?

What current education ministers can learn from their predecessors

By Andreas Schleicher
Director, Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: © Varkey Foundation

Last October, I attended the inaugural meeting of the Atlantis Group – an organisation comprised of former education ministers from across the world. Over the course of two days, these former ministers shared their experiences and insights in tackling common challenges, and discussed the role of political leadership in education.

It was fascinating to see former leaders share insights and common practices. But two things struck me as particularly interesting: virtually every former minister said they wished they had known on their first day what they knew on their last day; and nearly everyone wished they had been far more courageous and aware of the policy space for deep and lasting change that had actually been available.

While some new ministers will have access to a body of research and data to inform their decision-making, few will have the opportunity to learn from their predecessors – the former ministers who sat behind the same desks, faced the same issues and asked themselves the same questions. The Atlantis Group is helping to fill this gap, drawing on its members’ combined 70 years of experience in running public education systems.

“Every new minister wants to show rapid results and impress in the first few months,” says Silas Lwakabamba, Rwanda’s former education minister. As a leader known for implementing an ambitious programme of change while in office, he argues that new ministers should start by figuring out what’s already working.

“There are no jobs which are more challenging in society than political leadership in a period of change.”

“The challenge is to quickly identify the positive efforts or low-hanging fruits left by the previous minister and leverage the same for quick wins,” Lwakabamba says. “Unfortunately some new ministers tend to ignore or dismiss the efforts of the previous ministers, at their cost.”

For others, a minister’s priority for their first weeks in office should be to identify where – and who –the current system is failing. In the words of the former Philippines education minister, Brother Armin Luistro: “A new education minister will have to go beyond the usual queries about the status of current programs and begin asking the difficult questions about learners who are lagging behind, at risk of dropping out or, worse, who dare not dream of going to school.”

While in office, both Professor Lwakabamba and Brother Armin pursued far-reaching reforms that expanded free universal education and rewrote curricula. Today, as leading members of the Atlantis Group, both men want to pass on what they have learned to a new generation of ministers.

The Atlantis Group is an advisory body that works to provide expert, not-for-profit counsel to current ministers of education. An initiative of the Varkey Foundation, the group consists of 25 former ministers of education and heads of government.

Asked to reflect on their own time in office, the former ministers described some of the ways in which they made education a top priority for their own government, from the diplomatic (sitting down with teacher leaders to end a country-wide strike); to the astute (bringing in international experts); to the flat-out audacious (door-stopping officials for a greater share of resources). As one former minister noted: “There were several billion dollars that were committed to education [in my country] by sitting outside of the president or the minister of finance’s office forever and becoming relevant by force. You have to be there because otherwise there’s another minister that’s going to sit there and fetch that money.”

But beyond these political tactics, the former ministers overwhelmingly concluded that they had been most effective in office when they informed their decision-making with data, not ideology – and that good data had helped them to become better leaders. Indeed, many pointed to the publication of OECD reports and PISA data as watershed moments in their own countries that spurred reform.

In a new briefing, the Atlantis Group draws upon these discussions to set out four basic principles for ministers of education to succeed and lead effectively in office. They argue that a minister must have:

• the respect of their government and other stakeholders; 
• the conviction of their beliefs; 
• the resilience to lead their departments through crises; 
• and that ministers must reform education by fostering leadership and accountability throughout the system. 

The Atlantis Group hopes that these principles will help guide current and future education ministers as they work to overcome significant global challenges. As the Group notes in its new report, the international community today risks falling short of its 2030 Sustainable Development Goal, which calls for delivering inclusive and quality education for all, and promoting lifelong learning. Millions of children are leaving primary school without basic writing, reading and math skills, and at least 264 million are not in school at all, according to UN figures.

This is truly a global crisis, and one that urgently demands political leadership. As one former minister put it: “There are no jobs which are more challenging in society than political leadership in a period of change.”


Read more: 

Learning to Lead
PISA 2015 Results
Education Policy Outlook

Working together to improve adult skills in Portugal

By Andreas Schleicher

Director, Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: xtock/Shutterstock

In the span of a few decades, Portugal has transformed into an inclusive democracy. Its citizens enjoy a good standard of living, and despite being severely impacted by the financial crisis, the country’s economy is growing once again.

Portugal has made impressive progress in education, as well, with attainment rates rising continuously and youth academic performance fast improving. Yet although many young Portuguese people now complete their education and acquire skills that will be needed in the future – including digital skills – a large number of older, low-educated adults are at risk of falling behind.

Equipping all Portuguese adults with the right skills will be critical for Portugal and its people to address the challenges of the future and seize the opportunities it presents. More than 50% of working-age adults in Portugal have not completed secondary education. As a result, they may struggle in a world where globalisation and digitalisation are destroying some jobs, creating new ones and transforming the tasks people need in the workplace. They will also struggle to fully participate in society and political life.

Our new report, Skills Strategy Implementation Guidance for Portugal: Strengthening the Adult-Learning System, identifies three areas for action and 11 detailed policy recommendations aimed at reinforcing the capacity of Portugal’s adult-learning system to raise skills. This, in turn, can help boost economic growth and social cohesion.  

The first step would be for Portugal to develop a coherent adult-learning strategy that encompasses existing and new measures, and aligns with other key economic policies. Such an integrated strategy would be built on a vision shared by all actors involved, including the government, social partners, education and training providers, and the learners themselves. It would also connect various policy areas that support adult learning and engage stakeholders.

Putting these recommendations into action will involve a wide range of stakeholders.

The next important step would be to raise awareness around the value of skills and adult learning. Recent initiatives like the Qualifica programme and tools such as the Qualifica Passport are promising moves toward raising participation rates. But improving participation among the low-skilled continues to be a particularly formidable challenge. It is therefore essential that Portugal continue its efforts to demonstrate the value of skills and skills investments by disseminating better information on the returns from skills, and by implementing a comprehensive communication campaign that includes outreach tailored to specific groups.

It is also important to improve the accessibility, quality and relevance of adult-learning opportunities. This can be achieved by removing barriers to participation, including through more flexible and labour market-relevant programmes, as well as adequate support to make it easier for those who juggle work and family priorities to take part.

Improved guidance for learners could also strengthen the culture of lifelong learning in Portugal by providing clear ways for adults to access the learning opportunities they need at various points throughout their lives. A more systematic way to monitor and evaluate the outcomes of programmes will be key to raising quality and identifying what works best, and for whom.

  

Strengthening the governance and financing of the adult-learning system in Portugal is essential to ensuring that all actors work together towards common goals, and that funding is used strategically to raise quality and improve outcomes for learners. The country needs effective mechanisms to co-ordinate the multiple actors involved in adult learning. Portugal should therefore consider setting up dedicated governance bodies to oversee adult learning (e.g., a permanent inter-ministerial team and a permanent group within an existing multi-stakeholder institution) and ensure that it remains at the forefront of policy priorities in the long term. 

The country also needs strategies for cost sharing among the public and private sectors, recognising that the returns on investment would benefit learners, employers and society at large. To help with this, Portugal should establish a stable and quality-oriented funding model through a “skills financing pact”. Well-targeted financial incentives for learners, employers and providers will help raise participation of all parties involved in adult learning. 

Putting these recommendations into action will involve a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, individuals, employers, trade unions, and education and training providers. They will need to take joint responsibility and commit to delivering on efforts to improve the quality of Portugal’s adult-learning system and make it more accessible.

Portugal has led the way throughout history – it spearheaded world exploration centuries ago, and today it attracts record numbers of visitors and entrepreneurs to its dynamic cities. The country now needs to come together to ensure that everyone has the skills needed to thrive in a fast-changing world, and to build prosperity and social progress for generations to come.

Read more:

• Skills Strategy Implementation Guidance for Portugal: Strengthening the Adult-Learning System

Over 300 million people suffer from depression worldwide. Can education help?

By Simon Normandeau
Statistician, Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: Maksym Kaharlytskyi/Unsplash

The World Health Organization estimates that depression affects over 300 million people worldwide, making it the leading cause of disability. Suffering from depression can make it extremely difficult for an individual to function properly at school and at work; not only does this have an impact on the lives of those affected and their surroundings, but it also has wider economic consequences for societies at large, mainly due to high medical costs and employee productivity loss. In fact, recent studies have found that the total annual costs related to depression exceed EUR 90 billion in Europe, making it one of the most costly mental disorders.

These numbers are calling for action. But can education systems do anything about it? The answer is not so clear cut, but there may be evidence to show that education has at least some part to play in combating depression. The latest Education Indicators in Focus sheds some light on the relationship between education and depression, demonstrating that adults with low educational attainment are often those who report the highest level of depression. However, it is also true that depression among students may in itself be a cause for lower educational attainment, making it impossible to say for sure whether better education results in a lower likelihood of depression.

Even so, this ambiguity should not discourage us: education systems can still play a role in tackling depression and should strive to keep people in education at least until they complete upper secondary education. This means giving appropriate support to low-performing students and ensuring a climate of well-being in the classroom, thus creating an atmosphere that promotes positive attitudes towards mental health and provides all students with the best possible chance to succeed.

Even among similarly-educated adults, the likelihood to report depression varies greatly across countries, and can reflect cultural attitudes towards, and awareness of, mental health issues. The share of low-educated adults who say they suffered from depression is particularly high among low-educated adults in Iceland (above 20%), while it is generally low across different education levels in Italy. The results for Iceland are in line with an OECD report that showed that the country is the largest consumer of antidepressants per capita. The low rates in Italy, on the other hand, might be related to cultural taboos around depression: a recent study found that three quarters of Italians believe that people suffering from depression should avoid talking about their problems.

The differences are not just between countries: gender also plays a significant role in the likelihood to report depression. The chart above shows that, on average, women report higher levels of depression than men, but the likelihood to report depression decreases more steeply as women acquire further qualifications. This decreasing gender gap may be explained by the varying job prospects across different levels of educational attainment: being employed tends to be associated with a lower prevalence of depression, and the gender gap in employment rates also generally decreases as educational attainment increases.

Having a mental illness can also hinder the chances of finding a job; but at the same time, mentally ill people who find employment often show improvement in their condition through a greater sense of worth in the society and through enhanced self-esteem. It is therefore important that education systems ensure a smooth school-to-work transition, especially for those who perform poorly at school as they are likely to suffer from cumulative disadvantages. Students should enter the labour market equipped with the skills to properly flourish and break the vicious cycle that can lead to or sustain depression.

Although awareness of depression goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, the illness is still stigmatised in today's world. We now (thankfully) know that depression is not caused by demons and evil spirits, but the reluctance or failure to recognise depression for what it is prevents those most at risk from getting the support they need. Given the extent of the prevalence of depression and the large number of cases not yet diagnosed, it is important to lift the taboos around this illness and get people to talk more about it.

Education systems have a role in identifying those most at risk early on and raising awareness to ensure they are properly supported and that they get the attention they need from teachers or counsellors. It is of course true that schools should be dedicated to raising students' cognitive skills, but they must also equip them with self-confidence and self-esteem – two important factors that can help counter depression.



Read more:

Education in Focus no. 60

Taking a break from the Internet may be good for learning

By Alfonso Echazarra
Analyst, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: imgix on Unsplash

A Danish study on Internet use at school revealed that students themselves are perfectly aware of the risks of using the Internet for learning. Tellingly, one student explained the problems of using the Internet in the classroom: “You can have a brief conversation on Facebook during a math class and, when you look up again, the blackboard is covered with symbols and numbers”.

While this study also described promising ways in which computers and the Internet were being used in Danish high schools — for instance, students joined study groups on social media — studies like this one remind us how important it is to analyse the challenges associated with the digitalisation of education. After all, governments around the globe are making huge efforts to bring computers and high-speed Internet to every school; but too many questions remain unanswered.

Looking into the Internet use of 15-year-olds, this month’s PISA in Focus tries to answer some of these questions: Are 15-year-olds more connected to the Internet than their counterparts of three years ago? Is the digital divide growing or closing? And do digitally connected students show better education outcomes?

 Greater connectivity may not necessarily be good news for disadvantaged students.

The results show that students around the globe are spending more and more time on line. In the three years from 2012 to 2015, the time that 15-year-olds reported spending on the Internet increased from 21 to 29 hours per week, on average across OECD countries – an increase of more than one hour per day – with most of this increase concentrated on school days. The growth in Internet use was observed in every country and economy that distributed the ICT questionnaire in both the 2012 and 2015 cycles of PISA. Internet use grew the fastest in Chile, Costa Rica, Ireland and Italy, and slowest in Greece, Hong Kong (China), Macao (China) and Slovenia. In Costa Rica, students reported spending, on average, 36 hours per week on the Internet in 2015, compared to 19 hours just three years earlier.

There is no such thing as a digital divide in Internet use in most OECD countries. Even in 2012, socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students reported spending a similar amount of time connected to the Internet, on average across OECD countries, presumably because Internet access became virtually universal across most OECD countries in the preceding years. Interestingly, the gap may be reversing in favour of disadvantaged students, on average across OECD countries: in 2015 they reported spending about two hours more per week on line than advantaged students. But in Chile, Costa Rica, Latvia, Mexico, Russia and Uruguay, the traditional digital divide remains: advantaged students reported spending more time connected to the Internet than disadvantaged students – in Mexico, almost 20 hours more per week. And the digital divide persists when it comes to certain online enriching activities, such as reading news on the Internet.

However, this greater connectivity may not necessarily be good news for disadvantaged students. In every school system, students who reported using the Internet more frequently, particularly on school days, scored lower in science than students who reported using the Internet less frequently. These results are not necessarily a call for digital abstinence, but rather a call for moderation, as students who reported using the Internet moderately – up to 30 minutes on a typical weekday at school, between 1 and 4 hours on a typical weekday outside of school or between 2 and 4 hours on a typical weekend day – scored above students who never used the Internet or used it more intensively. Using the Internet intensively is also associated with less satisfaction with life, arriving late for school and lower education expectations, according to the OECD report PISA 2015 Results: Students’ Well-Being.

Students everywhere are spending more and more time connected to the Internet, both in and outside of school, and Internet use among disadvantaged students is increasing exponentially. While this may have been good news a few decades ago, today it may be a mixed blessing: evidence suggests that digitally connected students perform worse academically, particularly when they use the Internet intensively on school days; and extreme Internet users report lower levels of well-being. There are innovative, efficient and promising ways in which digital technologies are being used in education, but until they become the norm, logging off the Internet may not be a bad idea after all.


Learn more:

• PISA in Focus No. 83: How has Internet use changed between 2012 and 2015?

Basic skills: the missing ingredient in England’s apprenticeships

By Malgorzata Kuczera
Analyst, Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo Credit: George Pastushok/Unsplash

Apprenticeships can be of great value. They allow apprentices to develop a wide range of skills, they offer a fast track to employment and they can boost social mobility. But not all apprenticeships are created equal: some provide limited learning opportunities and don’t adequately prepare learners for skilled employment.

So what is the recipe for a good apprenticeship? It includes two essential ingredients: education and training, provided both on and off the job. As with any recipe, results depend on the quality of the ingredients and the way in which they are mixed together. And as any great chef will tell you, the recipe only improves with repetition and continuous refinement.

England is investing more in the development of its apprenticeship system than nearly any other country. Current reforms have created a new structure for apprenticeship programmes developed by employer groups and funded by a new levy on all large employers. Much has been achieved so far, as described in Apprenticeship in England, a new OECD study that compares England’s recent reforms with practices in other countries. Here, though, we’ll focus on a key ingredient in the English recipe that demands closer attention: basic skills.

English apprentices have distinctive characteristics. In some countries, like Switzerland, nearly all apprentices are teenagers. In Canada and other countries, nearly all apprentices are young adults, with an average age of around 30. In England, apprentices are a mixed group, with a fairly even split between learners above and below the age of 24.

Share of 25-year-olds and older among current apprentices (2012)

For young people, an apprenticeship can act as a launch pad into a successful working life, though that cannot be guaranteed. A 2016 OECD study of basic skills in England, Building Skills for All, showed that one-third of 16- to 19-year-olds in England have weak basic skills, compared with about 20% in Germany and 10% in the Netherlands. This means that a high proportion of young English men and women have real difficulties with literacy and numeracy – the foundations upon which continued learning is built. In working environments where tasks and even whole occupations are at risk of radical change, such foundational skills have become increasingly important.

Young English apprentices receive far less general education than apprentices in other countries. In England, general education (including maths and English) adds up to between about 50 and 100 hours over the duration of an apprenticeship; and it is only mandatory for those not meeting the requirements in English or maths. German and Swiss youth apprenticeships, by comparison, require around 400 hours of general education covering a range of subjects. Norwegian apprenticeships require nearly 600 hours of general education.

The remedy, as described in the OECD's new report, is for England to include more general education in youth apprenticeships – though doing so is not exactly straightforward.  Increased general education will demand more time from apprentices, taking them away from the workplace. This is unlikely to be popular with employers. It may also require a differentiated approach to adult and youth apprentices who may be less in need of initial basic education. And of course, additional teaching will involve more human and financial resources.

These are major challenges, but if England wants to develop a world-class apprenticeship system, they need to be overcome.




Learn more:

• Apprenticeship in England
• Building skills for all: a review of in England
• A Skills beyond School Review of England
• Work-based learning for youth at risk: getting employers on board
• Incentives for apprenticeships
• Work, train, win: work-based learning design and management for productivity gains

Why pedagogy matters for innovative teaching

By Alejandro Paniagua
Consultant, Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: Celia Ortega/Unsplash

It is generally acknowledged that the quality of an educational system depends upon the quality of its teachers. Teachers are responsible for preparing young people to meet new challenges in a fast-changing world; and that is why innovation in teaching practices has become essential for engaging students.

When it comes to innovative practice, there are many documented examples of innovative practice that teachers can turn to; however, to simply direct teachers to a set of tools and techniques would not necessarily be the best way to help them innovate in the classroom. Every situation is unique, and it is not always clear how such tools can be adapted in practice.

A new OECD report, Teachers as Designers of Learning Environments: the Importance of Innovative Pedagogies, takes a different approach. Rather than viewing teachers as technicians who adopt tools to improve the learning outcomes of their students, the report sees them as competent professionals who are able to find solutions to new problems. If the main challenge in educational practice is to meet the diverse needs of every student, then teaching needs to be acknowledged as a problem-solving process rooted in teacher professionalism.

Innovation in the classroom isn’t fostered by feeding teachers with techniques.

Our report focuses on pedagogies around natural learning inclinations, such as play, emotions, creativity, collaboration and enquiry. By identifying and grouping innovative approaches that promote learner engagement and align with new principles of learning, this publication can help teachers to innovate for themselves. It also provides readers with valuable insights from networks of innovative schools, including some that have already implemented the approaches described in the report.

In writing this report, we built on the analysis of six “clusters” of innovative pedagogies:

• blended learning, where the classroom is seen as the place to apply content and deepen one-to-one interactions, whether with the teacher or through peer collaboration; 

• gamification, which is engagement through play and the pedagogies of games; 

• computational thinking, which addresses mathematics as a coding language and looks at information and communication technology (ICT) as a platform for developing problem-solving reasoning in students;

• experiential learning, which focuses on the process of discovery;

• embodied learning, which focuses on the non-mental factors involved in learning and that signal the importance of the body and feelings; and 

• multiliteracies and discussion-based teaching, which situates knowledge in the political and cultural context. 

Together, these clusters provide a baseline from which teachers can innovate themselves.

It is essential for teachers to understand the relationship between teaching and learning when designing learning environments; and to acknowledge the importance of networking and collaboration among schools that are implementing similar approaches – this is the starting point for putting innovations into action.

In the case of ICT, the increased use of computers in different subjects has not signalled a turning point in how students acquire the complex set of skills they need to be proficient. They may become familiar with basic tasks, but not in a way that boosts their learning or, more importantly, helps them understand ICT as a critical tool for solving today’s challenges.

In fact, the unfulfilled promise of ICT in education underscores the importance of putting pedagogies at the centre of education policy discussions. The importance of ICT and skills like critical thinking and digital literacy has come into clearer focus in new projects targeting curriculum reform, and it has been incorporated in surveys such as the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA). Yet neither the curriculum nor the assessments really tell teachers how to update their practices.

School networks are critical for understanding and scaling classroom-level innovations.

To help teachers become champions of ICT in the classroom, we must think in terms of teaching and learning interactions. For example, by considering critical thinking, digital literacy or computer science in terms of pedagogies, it is possible to identify computational thinking as a key pedagogical lever in understanding how to use computers in the way that scientists do to solve problems – in other words, using computers to implement problem-solving approaches. This, in turn, can improve student competence in mathematics, sciences, or other key areas such as design or algorithmic thinking.

School networks are also a critical lever for understanding and scaling classroom-level innovations. Such networks play an important role in encouraging innovation as a community-driven process to collectively improve the design of learning environments.  Computers at School (CAS), a grassroots organisation that supports computer science teaching in schools across the United Kingdom, focuses much of its support on computer science subject knowledge. Such support also serves as a platform upon which new pedagogies, such as computational thinking, can flourish.

Recognising the key role of pedagogy is not about policy dictating the best teaching methods. Rather, it is a matter of broadening teachers’ skills and techniques, and helping them explore new ways of thinking, reflecting and understanding. In this mission, teachers are not and should not be alone: teachers in school networks are in continuous contact with a large community that supports their professional development. Innovation in the classroom isn’t fostered by feeding teachers with techniques, but through a learning process in which teachers identify their creative, intuitive and personal capacities, and better align them with innovative pedagogies.



Read more: 

• Teachers as Designers of Learning Environments: the Importance of Innovative Pedagogies
• Understanding Innovative Pedagogies: Key Themes to Analyse New Approaches to Teaching and Learning
• Teaching in Focus No. 21 - What does innovation in pedagogy look like? 

Preparing teachers for 21st century challenges

By Andreas Schleicher
Director, Directorate for Education and Skills




Preparing today’s students to thrive in their society is no easy task. The skills and knowledge they’ll need to succeed in the future are constantly changing, while others are quickly being digitised, automated or outsourced.

This puts teachers in a difficult position. Not only do we expect them to have a deep and broad understanding of the subjects they teach, and to adequately prepare their students for 21st century challenges; we also expect them to be passionate, compassionate and thoughtful, and to ensure that students feel valued and included in a collaborative learning environment.

Our expectations of teachers are high and rising, yet our education systems are not keeping pace. Most schools look much the same today as they did a generation ago, and teachers themselves are often not developing the practices and skills required to meet the diverse needs of today’s learners.

So what can be done to support teachers to meet the formidable challenges of 21st century education? And how can they take advantage of new opportunities? Those questions will be at the heart of the 8th International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP), which will be held this week in Lisbon. Hosted by the Portuguese Ministry of Education, with support from the OECD and Education International, the Summit brings together education ministers, union leaders and other teacher leaders to share their insights and reflect on public education policy.

Charting a course forward will not be simple or straightforward – but it is absolutely necessary.

Over the course of two days (22-23 March), attendees will address three interrelated issues. The first session focuses on schools, and how policy-makers and the teaching profession can strengthen links between schools and their communities. Schools are vital to the social health of their local communities, and the most successful schools are often those that are at the center of their cities, towns and neighborhoods. Engaging with local communities is therefore key to success, as it is clear that no school exists in a vacuum.

The second session gets to the heart of education: pedagogy. Many teachers have a good sense of the kind of pedagogies on which 21st century learning hinges, but there is still a significant gap between intended and implemented practices. The challenge for education systems is to create conditions that will encourage teachers to initiate, share and evaluate innovative pedagogies – including new technologies -- and to anticipate any impacts such pedagogies may have on the roles of students and teachers.

In the third session, we will turn our attention to teachers themselves. There is a growing recognition that in order for teaching and learning to be most effective, teachers need to have high levels of well-being, self-efficacy and confidence. How can governments, in partnership with teachers’ unions, create evidence-informed strategies on well-being, efficacy and effectiveness as part of their teacher policies?

Over the years, the ISTP has established itself of the most unique and successful education summits in the world – in part, because it explores difficult and controversial issues on the basis of sound evidence, provided by the OECD. The 8th edition of the Summit will be no different, and I am very much looking forward to the discussions and debates. Charting a course forward for teachers will not be simple or straightforward – but it is absolutely necessary. Today’s students will face vastly different challenges by the time they reach adulthood. We should do everything we can to make sure they’re prepared.

Read more

8th International Summit on the Teaching Profession
Valuing our Teachers and Raising their Status: How Communities Can Help

What can education systems do to support students with immigrant backgrounds?

by Francesca Borgonovi
Senior Analyst

Large-scale migration is starting to radically alter the makeup of today’s classrooms, bringing a new wave of social, cultural and linguistic diversity to schools in destination countries. Results from the latest publication of the Strength through Diversity project, The Resilience of Students with an Immigrant Background: Factors that Shape Well-Being, reveal that in 2015, almost one in four 15-year-old students in OECD countries reported that they were either foreign-born or had at least one foreign-born parent. Indeed, in Luxembourg and Switzerland, more than one out of every two 15-year-old students reported that they were either foreign-born or had at least one parent who was; and between 2003 and 2015, the share of students who had either migrated or had a parent who migrated across international borders grew by an average of six percentage points across OECD countries.

The ability of societies to preserve and promote social cohesion in the presence of large migration flows depends on their capacity to integrate immigrants. While migration flows can create difficulties for host communities, they also represent an opportunity for countries with ageing native-born populations that face labour and skills shortages. Effective education and social policies are essential for successfully integrating migrant children into society and unlocking the potential benefits of migration.

Schools often act as an early point of contact between young immigrants and their host societies, helping to determine their ability to participate in the labour markets of host countries, contribute to welfare arrangements, and feel part of their communities. This new OECD report is the first of its kind because it examines the overall resilience – “resilience” being the ability to thrive academically, socially and emotionally in adverse circumstances – of students with an immigrant background as they integrate into education systems. The report identifies both the risk factors that prevent immigrant students from successfully integrating and the protective factors that enable these students to flourish.

Many students with an immigrant background fail to achieve the academic, social and emotional outcomes that are comparable to those achieved by their native peers.

Despite the adversities they face, many students with an immigrant background actually overcome the various disadvantages that often accompany displacement, and display high levels of academic, social, emotional and motivational resilience. For example, as much as 49% of first-generation and 61% of second-generation immigrant students achieve at least baseline levels of proficiency in the three core PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) subjects of reading, mathematics and science; and as much as 59% of first-generation and 63% of second-generation immigrant students report feeling a strong sense of belonging at school. Crucially, many students with an immigrant background appear to be motivated to make the most of their educational opportunities: 71% of both first- and second-generation immigrant students report high levels of achievement motivation.

But many students with an immigrant background fail to achieve the academic, social and emotional outcomes that are comparable to those achieved by their native peers; they struggle to overcome socio-economic disadvantages, language barriers and the difficulty of forging a new identity.

Education systems play a key role in enabling students with an immigrant background to reach their academic potential, feel part of their communities and be satisfied with their lives. Findings from this new report suggest that when education systems adequately support students with an immigrant background, other students can benefit too. The growing diversity that arises from international migration can be a great opportunity for education systems, forcing teachers to rethink their pedagogical approaches and teaching styles. Doing so will better equip them to cater to the needs of each student, whether the student has an immigrant background or not. At the same time, if teachers and educators do not have the right support, they may not be able to adapt to these changes, and all students may suffer as a result.

Schools in many communities are already working to promote the resilience of students with an immigrant background, often jointly with other social service providers and civil society, and with direct financial and logistical support from national, regional or local governments. The Strength through Diversity project has been facilitating dialogue among countries through its dedicated Policy Forum series, but more can be done. This new OECD report can help educators build the resilience, and ease the integration, of all students with an immigrant background.

Read more

Strength through Diversity: The Integration of Immigrants and Refugees in School and Training Systems
The Resilience of Students with an Immigrant Background. Factors that Shape Well-being

Photo credit: @Shutterstock

Why schools should pay more attention to students’ mental health and well-being

by Anna Choi 
Analyst, Economist/Analyst at CFE/LESI (Local employment, skills, and social innovation)

The notion of well-being and happiness has increasingly taken centre stage in our societies over the recent years. As Nobel Prize Economist Daniel Kahneman puts it, "there is a huge wave of interest in happiness among researchers. There is a lot of happiness coaching. Everybody would like to make people happier."

In addition to physical health, it has become clear that emotional health is vital for our overall well-being. Children who are in a good state of emotional well-being have higher odds of growing into adults who are happy, confident, and enjoy healthy lifestyles, consequently contributing towards a better society and improving the overall well-being of the population.

Perhaps this emphasis on well-being may reflect the increasing prevalence of emotional ill-being and mental health problems. Across OECD countries, almost one in four adults report experiencing more anger, worry and sadness than enjoyment, restedness and smiling or laughter every day. What is more alarming is that around 10-20% of children and adolescents around the world suffer from mental health problems, and an increasing number of children and adolescents have reported experiencing anxiety, depression, and difficulties sleeping over the recent decades. Emotional well-being during childhood and adolescence is particularly important as nearly one in two mental health problems among adults begin by age 14. A just released Trends Shaping Education Spotlight looks at this in more detail.

Given the importance of emotional well-being in early life, these trends are quite worrying for researchers, policy makers, teachers, and parents worldwide. This is perhaps reflected in the fact that schools and education systems around the world are increasingly concerned with their students' well-being. Since children and adolescents spend most of their time in schools, their learning environments can have a significant impact on their emotional well-being, in addition to the things they experience outside of school.

Schools and education systems around the world are increasingly concerned with their students' well-being.

Different factors can be conducive or detrimental to students' well-being, and many of these factors are interrelated. Stable emotional support and positive relationships with parents can act as a protective buffer during difficulties in life such as chronic stress, exposure to bullying, anxiety, and depression. Similarly, happier students tend to report having good relationships with their teachers, and those who receive high levels of support from their teachers tend to handle stress better at school. Outside of school, engaging in other activities such as volunteering can help foster co-operation and interpersonal trust. Socialising with friends outside of school is also positively associated with life satisfaction, sense of belonging at school, happiness and self-esteem.

While it is difficult to isolate a single winning strategy to enhance children’s and adolescents' emotional well-being, effective prevention programmes for depression, anxiety and suicide tend to all have something in common at their core: cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). The behavioural component within CBT focuses on coping strategies, social problem-solving skills, and interpersonal relationships, as well as the cognitive component involved in helping adolescents identify and gain control over thought processes and patterns in order to be more optimistic.  Similarly, CBT programmes targeted towards lowering anxiety have a related behavioural component that helps participants block avoidance behaviour, and a cognitive therapy component that emphasises the monitoring of feelings and behaviours and efforts towards cognitive restructuring to change anxious thoughts and processes.

It is important to involve and collaborate with different actors—schools, teachers, and parents—to improve the effectiveness of different prevention programs and thus enhance children’s and adolescents’ well-being. An open line of communication between teachers and parents can raise the awareness of the problem as some children may be reluctant to openly discuss the challenges and emotional difficulties they are going through, whether it be depression, anxiety, or bullying. It is also important to provide support and training to teachers and parents to monitor and detect children's symptoms and behaviours early on (including depression, bullying, chronic stress, and other behavioural problems).

If not properly addressed, issues of mental health and well-being may not only impact individuals at the school level, but also have far-reaching effects on the society at large.

Links

Trends Shaping Education Spotlight 14 - Good vibrations: Students’ well-being 

OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation 

How's Life? Measuring Well-being
Emotional well-being of children and adolescents. Recent trends and relevant factors
PISA 2015 Results. Student's Well-Being

Photo credit: @Shutterstock

How Japan’s Kosen schools are creating a new generation of innovators

By Andreas Schleicher
Director, Directorate for Education and Skills

Photo credit: Jun Takai

Innovation and problem solving depend increasingly on the ability to synthesise disparate elements to create something different and unexpected. This involves curiosity, open-mindedness and making connections between ideas that previously seemed unrelated. It also requires knowledge across a broad range of fields. If we spend our entire lives in the silo of a single discipline, we will not gain the imaginative skills necessary to connect the dots and develop the next life-changing invention.

For schools, then, the challenge is to remain true to disciplines while encouraging interdisciplinary learning and building students’capacity to see problems through multiple lenses. Some countries have been trying to develop cross-curricular capabilities. Japan’s network of Kosen schools is a unique example.

Its president, Isao Taniguchi, showed me around the Tokyo campus last week, and it was one of my most inspiring school visits. At first sight, the campus looks like a vocational school, since much of the learning is hands-on, collaborative and project-based. But for those who may associate hands-on learning with an academically less-rigorous curriculum, Kosen is profoundly different.

What makes the Kosen schools different is their unique blend of classroom-based and hands-on, project-based learning.

In fact, the 51 Kosen schools are among Japan’s most selective high schools and colleges, and the curriculum is as much focused on liberal arts as it is technical and scientific studies. Some 40% of graduates will continue studying at university, and those who choose to directly enter the labour market can expect an average of 20 job offers as Japan’s most sought-after innovators and engineers. None of the students I met knew anyone who had dropped out of this demanding programme.

What makes the Kosen schools different is their unique blend of classroom-based and hands-on, project-based learning. At Kosen schools, learning is both cross-curricular and student-centred, and teachers are mainly coaches, mentors, facilitators and evaluators. This is not one of those contrived, one-week projects that have now become quite fashionable in many schools around the world; on the contrary, Kosen students will typically work for several years on developing and realising their big ideas.

Toshiki Tomihira, a student specialising in electrical engineering, invited me to an amazing virtual reality experience of wild water rafting. Daisuke Suzuki, a chemistry student, is working on a low-cost solution to purify soil from heavy metal pollution. And unlike most other school projects, the fruits of the work of Kosen students typically end up not in a bin, but in an incubator where they find their way to market as one of Japan’s many innovations.

While project-based learning has only recently gained widespread traction, the Kosen schools have been in operation since the early 1960s, demonstrating to the world that this is not just a promising approach, but a proven one, as well.


Learn more about Japan's efforts to help students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills:    

Why access to quality early childhood education and care is a key driver of women’s labour market participation

  by Eric Charbonnier, Analyst, Directorate for Education and Skills

We are in 1961. JF Kennedy is president and has just designated Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman of the new US Commission on the Status of Women: "We want to be sure that women are used as effectively as they can to provide a better life for our people, in addition to meeting their primary responsibility, which is in the home." Fifty-seven years ago, women had to make a choice between pursuing a career or having children. Back then, access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) services was reserved for the elite and was not considered a policy priority; maternity leave was rare, while paternity leave was unheard of. This may seem strange now, but just try to think of society in the 1960s. Just think how far we have come since then: In 1961, only 38 % of women were employed in the United States. In 2015, this figure was at 70%.

Don’t be fooled by the upbeat statistics though. Two generations later, inequalities still exist.  Although women are more engaged in the labour market, they are still three times more likely to be employed in part-time positions than men. They are also less likely to be employed in higher-paid occupations, and less likely to progress in their careers. However, mindsets have evolved, and combining a career and a family for women is no longer the heresy it used to be.  As a recent example, the current Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, announced some months ago both her first pregnancy and her husband’s paternity leave: "I’ll be Prime Minister AND a mum, and Clarke will be “first man of fishing” and stay- at- home dad." The news was generally well--received, a stark contrast to 1961 when low provision of early childhood services and other work-family provision would have made such a decision virtually impossible.

This month’s Education Indicators in Focus brief takes a closer look at how provision of early childhood education and care has affected the participation of women in the labour market over the years. In the last half century, women’s labour force participation has increased dramatically in most countries. The rise in ECEC provision over this period has greatly contributed to this change, particularly for mothers with a child under the age of 3. As shown in the figure above, both components are strongly associated. However, there are substantial cross-country differences. In countries where mothers’ labour market participation rates are the highest, the proportions of very young children enrolled in early childhood services are also the highest (see quadrant on the top-right). By contrast, combining childrearing and employment is most difficult in some eastern  European countries (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, the Slovak Republic), as well as in Mexico (see quadrant on the bottom-left), partly because these services are under-developed in those countries.

The availability of early childhood services plays a key role in the increased labour force participation rates among women. This in turn has public benefits in terms of higher contributions to society and to economic growth.  But having a good access to such services is not sufficient. The number of ECEC hours per week available to young children is paramount to increasing the full-time participation of mothers in the labour market. For that reason, many OECD countries have recently increased the number of free hours of ECEC entitlements, or shifted from half-day to full-day kindergartens. However, here again, wide variations among countries still exist. Countries with both high levels of participation in early childhood education and care and greater intensity of participation (in hours per week), such as Nordic countries, are in general those in which most mothers work full-time.

Women’s participation in work does not only make economic sense for a nation, but the benefits of early childhood services towards better learning for the children themselves are also now widely acknowledged. In this context, it is not surprising that ECEC has experienced a surge of policy attention in the last fifteen years. However, despite many initiatives over this period to increase access, equity and quality of these services across OECD countries, affordability remains a key challenge in most of them. It is true (and a positive step) that governments often provide various schemes to help reduce the cost of early childhood services for poorer families (including cash transfers, rebates and tax reductions), but these efforts are still insufficient. Thus, children under the age of 3 in most countries are more likely to be enrolled in ECEC if they come from relatively advantaged socio-economic backgrounds or if their mother has completed a tertiary education degree.

Society has progressed a lot in fifty-seven years. Who would have thought in 1961 that someday women would no longer have to make a choice between their career and raising a family? Stronger access and provision to early childhood education and care services has greatly contributed to more equity in the workforce, but more is needed to ensure fully equal participation of men and women, whether at work or at home. Hopefully we will not have to wait another half century to see that happen.

Links
Education Indicators in Focus No. 59 - How does access to early childhood education services affect the participation of women in the labour market?
OECD Early Childhood Education and Care
Starting Strong 2017: Key OECD Indicators on Early Childhood Education and Care