Latvia has made good progress improving its education system since independence in 1991, but more efforts are now needed to raise teaching standards and ensure that all students have access to a quality education, according to a new OECD report.

In the 2012 PISA test, urban students in Latvia outperformed rural students by the equivalent of more than a year of schooling – half a year more than the average performance difference between these two groups of students across OECD countries.

At the beginning of work-based learning programmes employers make an investment. This pays off later on when, after receiving high quality training, skilled trainees achieve higher productivity and contribute to production.

In 2011 the Social Movement for Public Education led the biggest demonstrations since Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile. Since then, one of the main campaigns in Chilean society has been for the recognition of education as a social right, under the slogan of “free, quality, public education” (educación pública, gratuita y de calidad).

How are policy makers in the United States using data to help districts maximise their impact? And, what tools do districts need to work together in order to build stronger communities?

The Dutch school system is one of the best in the OECD, but raising standards will require further reforms to improve early childhood education, motivate students to excel and develop a career structure that attracts more high performers to the teaching profession, according to a new OECD report.

Across OECD countries, 32% of low-performing students reported that they give up easily when confronted with a difficult mathematics problem compared to only 13% of top performers.

Common sense and hard evidence point to the significant impact of socio-emotional skills such as perseverance and responsibility on children's lifetime success.

Webinar: Andreas Schleicher, Director of the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, presents the findings of Equations and Inequalities - Making Mathematics Accessible to All

More than hundred years ago, nations that are now members of the OECD introduced legislation to set the age compulsory education.

Early childhood education and care programmes (ECEC) have become more accessible in recent years, with high enrolment rates in both early childhood educational development and preprimary education.

Many students who participated in PISA 2012 reported that they have hardly been exposed to fundamental concepts in mathematics, like arithmetic means or linear equations, which form the basis of the numeracy skills that they will need to thrive as adults.

Employer engagement in education and training has become a hot topic for policy makers and practitioners around the world.

It’s the time of year when young people in the northern hemisphere are finishing their formal studies for the year – or for the foreseeable future.

The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), was designed to provide insights into the availability of some of these key skills in society and how they are used at work and at home.

Schools nowadays are required to learn faster than ever before in order to deal effectively with the growing pressures of a rapidly changing environment.

The international statistical system, one of the great achievements of international organisations, has mirrored the evolution of the nation-state.

The digital divide has shifted.

When we think of technology and education, we usually think of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Vocational education and training can mean very different things to different people.

At the turn of this century, two different models of higher education programmes prevailed in the world.

PISA 2012 finds that, on average across OECD countries, about 70% of students attend schools where teachers believe that it is best to adapt academic standards to students’ capacities and needs.

Today’s education systems need to adapt practices to local diversity while ensuring common goals.

OECD countries must step up their efforts to improve the quality and equity of their education systems as part of their commitments to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for education by 2030, according to a new OECD report.

Education at a Glance 2016 - Country Notes

Archived webinar of September 15,2016 with Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, OECD, presenting the findings of Education at a Glance 2016.

The role of the school leader is essential for pupil and staff success, and although good practice exists, there is still room for improvement.

Students unable to navigate through our complex digital landscape are simply no longer able to participate in our social, economic and cultural life.

Exposure to high quality teacher professional development varies greatly both between and within countries, which broadens the scope of work for policy makers.

On 6 December, the latest results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, better known as PISA, will be made public.

Why women and men choose to pursue different fields of study, and why those choices vary among countries, is not easy to determine.

More and more adults are earning a tertiary qualification, but not all tertiary degrees have the same value on the labour market. In general, postgraduate degrees such as master’s and doctoral degrees are associated with higher employment rates and earnings than bachelor’s degrees.

This policy profile on education in Korea is part of the Education Policy Outlook series, which presents comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across OECD countries.

PISA 2015 focused on science, with the understanding that, although not every student is interested in becoming a scientist, all of us now need to be able to “think like a scientist” sometimes.

Education’s purpose is to prepare children for a fast-moving, ever-changing world. Teaching faces the additional challenge of classrooms becoming increasingly more culturally diverse. Now, more than ever, this requires an adaptation of current teaching strategies.

In 2015, three economies in China participated in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, for the first time: Beijing, a municipality, Jiangsu, a province on the eastern coast of the country, and Guangdong, a southern coastal province. Shanghai, which, like Beijing, is also a Chinese megacity of over 20 million people, has participated in PISA since 2009.

Peru has been one of the strongest economic performers in Latin America with steady GDP per capita growth over the past decade.

High-performing education systems value teachers and invest a lot in them. And indeed, the human factor is crucial in creating effective and high-quality teaching and learning environments.

Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that, among countries with a comparatively high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the amount spent on education is less important than how those resources are used.

In a changing and more competitive job market, Vocational Education and Training (VET) delivers specific skills and knowledge for the jobs of today and tomorrow, leading to great careers and good life prospects.

Tomorrow, the OECD will publish the 2015 PISA results. The world’s premier global metric for education will tell us which countries have the best school systems, based on the performance of 15-year-olds in science, mathematics and reading over a two-hour test.

Singapore outperforms the rest of the world in the OECD’s latest PISA survey, which evaluates the quality, equity and efficiency of school systems. The top OECD countries were Japan, Estonia, Finland and Canada.

More than half a million 15-year-olds took part in the OECD’s latest global education survey, known as PISA. The main focus was on science, an increasingly important part of our economic and social lives.

Bringing you the highlights from the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

Traditional economics measure the benefits of education and skills in its economic gains in employment or earnings.

Since 2009, Education at a Glance (EAG) has included an indicator on education and social outcomes using data from different surveys.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines not just what students know in science, reading and mathematics, but what they can do with what they know. Results from PISA show educators and policy makers the quality and equity of learning outcomes achieved elsewhere, and allow them to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries.

Skills are the foundation upon which Mexico must build future growth and prosperity. Mexico, being one of the youngest populations among OECD countries, has a strong demographic advantage and thus a unique window of opportunity. But it also faces common challenges to bring the skills of its population up to the requirements of the global digital economy.

As governments around the world seek to tackle stubbornly high levels of youth unemployment, new attention has been focused on the relationship between education and employment.

Modern education systems, which are open to the middle classes and the poor, not just the elites, were established during the first industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries.