"A defining characteristic of work at the OECD is its evidence-driven effort to improve policies, with a focus on addressing the long-term social and economic implications of public policy, rather than getting bogged down with short-term administrative fixes.

OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), for example, has enabled policy-makers to see their own education systems in the light of the best performing systems that set the standards of what can be achieved, and shifted the focus of the educational debate from inputs to learning outcomes.

This kind of work will become ever more important, as the best performing systems, not simply improvement by national standards, increasingly become the yardstick for success. In a world that is indifferent to tradition and past reputations, unforgiving of frailty and ignorant of custom or practice, success will go to those individuals and countries which are swift to adapt, slow to complain and open to change. OECD’s work can help governments to ensure that their countries rise to the challenges."