Rationale for Creating a Global Forum on Education

Global Forums address issues that defy solution in individual countries or regions and for which the relevance of OECD work is dependent on interaction and peer learning with relevant non-members world-wide.

1. There is increasing recognition that education plays a key role in achieving goals of sustainable economic development. Most non-members have embarked on reforms to meet the Education for All (EFA) challenge and equity of access to lifelong learning. Several have turned to the OECD for policy reviews and recommendations, but resources are often insufficient to respond to demand on an individual country basis.

A Global forum on Education can help to satisfy this demand in areas of current Directorate for Education activities (inter alia tertiary education, special needs and lifelong learning) and can be a useful vehicle for attracting additional voluntary contributions for Secretariat work. Synergies would also be found through interaction between regional reform work implemented through OECD reviews (e.g. Baltics, SEE, Latin America and Africa).  Although education has been listed as a topic for the Knowledge Economy Forum, the Forum has never addressed any education issue directly.

Policy issues discussed at the Forum meetings are the subject of specific peer learning, including the analytical use and the development of comparable data.

2. The Programme for Co-operation with Non-Member Economies (NME) has had lengthy experience in organising regional projects for peer learning (EC-Phare co-operation in higher education; EC-Phare co-operation in secondary education; SEE education networks; Baltic programme, etc.) on numerous themes: education reform in relation to the needs of the labour market; a leadership role for ministries of education in decentralised systems; the role of parliamentary committees in formulating education policy, etc. It is not unlikely that non-member participation in PISA will outnumber OECD Members in the foreseeable future. This is already the case for Special Education Needs - Students with Disabilities, Difficulties and Disadvantages (SENDDD) statistics and indicators. Even countries that do not currently have the capacity or finance required to join these networks can benefit from establishing similar systems for future adhesion.

The Forums constitute stable networks of policy makers from member and non-member economies that contribute to mutually beneficial dialogue and thus enhance non-members' capacity to benefit from OECD work and have a bearing on it.

3. Substantial networks of education officials and experts in both member and non-member countries have been established through the Education and the Economy activity begun in 1991: peer reviews of non-member economies; World Education Indicators (WEI); the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); and the programme for improving outcomes for students with special needs (SENDDD). The Forum would allow these networks to interact and be strengthened, as well as to be expanded to include a wider range of non-member economies.

Forum activities are characterised by a clear focus and continuity over the medium term, and there are appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

4. Being closely linked to the current work of the Directorate for Education, tailored for the needs of the non-member audience, would ensure a clear focus and appropriate monitoring.
The Forums gain name recognition outside the OECD as vehicles for international co-operation on specific subjects.

5. OECD outreach education activities began with the Education and the Economy Conference in 1992, which drew 130 high level representatives from 27 countries, the European Commission, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), social partners and observers from the Council of Europe and UNESCO. Over the ensuing years the OECD has built a solid reputation through analytical work, targeted seminars (e.g. education reform in relation to the needs of the labour market, the role of parliamentary committees in formulating education policy, etc.), and more than 35 country reviews. The recommendations of these country reviews were valuable for the former Partner in Transition countries and have had an important impact on non-members in:

• Identifying major developments, problems and issues in the moves to adapt education systems to the needs of market-based economies;
• Relating these moves to wider trends, viz. democratisation, technological change, demographic factors and the progress of science; and
• Considering and further developing an agenda of problems and tasks on which further collaborative work might be undertaken.

6. This work laid the foundation for open review of options in partnership with the countries concerned and established the reputation of the OECD for activities focusing on the "consumer" of education, on the responsiveness of policy and practitioners to the social, economic and political changes occurring and on the role education must play in preparing young people for society. The OECD review recommendations have played an important role in promoting bilateral projects with Member countries and multilateral programmes through EU agencies and Banks. This reputation has led to other agencies using the format for regional projects (e.g. the Education Training Foundation [ETF] in South Eastern Europe and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa [ADEA] in sub-Saharan Africa) to the OECD being asked to play a key role as co-ordinator for education policy in the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.