What does OBESSU think about OECD’s “Education at a Glance”
On 11th September 2012 OBESSU was present at the European Launch of “Education at a Glance 2012” (EaG 2012). The new report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) presents a thorough analysis on the structures, the finances and the performance of educational systems in the 34 OECD member countries (including 21 EU countries) and key partner countries, including G20 nations. The main focus of this year’s publication is the relationship and the effects of the Economic Crisis on education.
The five-hundred-page publication shows a dramatic picture about the situation of education in the countries examined. For example, in 19 out of 32 individual countries, the public spending on education as a percentage of the total expenditure fell between 2005 and 2009. This not only has a negative effect on the whole society in terms of employment, student mobility, social and gender equity, but is producing a domino effect on accessing higher and tertiary education and emphasizes the gap between people who have economic means and those who do not. In many cases the burden of the costs of education has shifted from the State to the families, which represent in the last instance the one and only form of financial support for students. Whereas the share of public expenditure devoted to education decreased in most countries between 2005 and 2009, expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP increased in almost all countries during this period.
EaG 2012 also analyses many other aspects of Education, such as student enrolment in primary, secondary, tertiary education; the commitment of governments and all the other actors in financing education; and the learning environment like school buildings, classes, time spent in them, teachers’ involvement and salaries.
However, the publication is focuses in particular on the Economic dimension and social benefits of Education, or more precisely how does education effect the economy and employment rates and what are the incentives both for the society and individuals to invest in education.
The OECD Secretary General, Mr. Angel Gurria, well explains the idea behind EaG 2012 when he says that “We need an increasingly educated and skilled workforce to succeed in today’s knowledge economy”. This statement reflects the political advice and recommendations given beside the data and the graphs. These express which would be the education policy reforms needed to prepare skilled people responding to labour market trends.
OBESSU refuses with profound conviction the idea of Education seen as a mere supplement of the labour market, as if it was a “diploma factory” with the only aim of producing a performing, skilled and competitive workforce to enter into the labour arena. On the contrary, we firmly believe on the structural independence and autonomy of education, which should be fully recognized and considered as a human right especially in policy making processes. The main aim of education is to enable learners to fully develop their personal and societal skills and acquire competences to actively participate in their society.
We believe that it is extremely important to have a complete overview of Education changes and differences across the globe, especially in order to fully monitor the effects of the global recession. Yet, policy makers and all the other stakeholders should not only take into consideration the relationship of education with economy and the labour market, but first and foremost the immeasurable values of education and concentrate on the quality of the curricula, teaching methods, promotion of critical thinking and active citizenship.
Unfortunatelly, despite the interesting overview provided by the OECD report, this stays very narrow in its approach to education disregarding the core social mission of education.
Written by Daniele Di Mitri, OBESSU Board Member
If you want some Background and Information about the publication, check out this document: Background Information
Click here for the link to the Publication and the Education at a Glance website.
