What role for education?
Education is a major area of spending for OECD countries, but they face tough questions when it comes to allocating these resources: How best to balance spending across people’s lives—from preschool to adult learning? How can the role of education in fuelling economic growth be reconciled with other education goals? And what are the best ways of achieving those goals?

Drawing on the experience of member countries, OECD helps societies answer these questions. The goal is to create education and training systems that contribute to social stability and economic strength, and that provide everybody with the chance to make the most of their innate abilities at every stage of life.

Introducing OECD’s Education Directorate
This section of the website introduces the work of the Education Directorate. It’s divided into four main areas:

Pre-school and school 
- Higher education and adult learning
- Education, the economy and society
- Research and knowledge management

Other resources include an A to Z index listing areas of work undertaken by the OECD  Directorate for Education. There are dedicated sections for the following programmes:
PISA - international student assessment
IMHE - management in higher education
CELE  - planning and design of education facilities
CERI - research and innovation in education

More

Top of page

Focus

"The OECD Skills Strategy is designed to help countries build better skills policies and turn them into jobs, growth, and better lives." - Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD

OECD Skills Strategy - Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives: A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies

Focus

Learning beyond Fifteen focuses on the development of reading proficiency between the ages of 15 and 24 using the results of a Canadian study that combines PISA data with a follow-up survey, the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS)

Learning Beyond Fifteen - 10 years after PISA

Focus

This new publication focuses on quality issues: it aims to define quality and outlines five policy levers that can enhance it in ECEC.

Starting Strong III - A Quality Toolbox for Early Childhood Education and Care

Focus

This report presents policy recommendations for education systems to help all children succeed in their schooling.

Equity and Quality in Education - Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools

Focus

The 2011 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries’ performance.

Education at a Glance 2011: OECD Indicators

Focus

PISA 2009 Results presents the findings from the most recent PISA survey, which focused on reading and also assessed mathematics and science performance.

PISA 2009 Results

Focus

This report will prove to be an invaluable resource for all those interested in the broad international picture of education, as well as for those wanting to know more about OECD work in this important domain.

Education Today 2010: The OECD Perspective