Education at a glance : OECD indicators 2002

376 Pages·2002·4.09 MB·English

by  OECD

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Education at a Glance 2
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OECD INDICATORS 2002
Education
Across OECD countries, governments are seeking policies to make education more effective while searching for
additional resources to meet the increasing demand for education. The OECD education indicators enable
at a Glance
countries to see themselves in the light of other countries' performance.
The 2002 edition of Education at a Glance – OECD Indicatorsprovides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array
of indicators. The indicators represent the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current
state of education internationally. They provide information on the output of educational institutions and the
OECD INDICATORS 2002
impact of learning, the policy levers that shape educational outcomes and how education systems operate and
evolve, and the human and financial resources invested in education. The thematic organisation of the volume
and the background information accompanying the tables and charts make this publication a valuable resource
for anyone interested in analysing education systems across countries.
The focus of this year's edition of Education at a Glanceis on the quality of learning outcomes and the policy
levers that shape these outcomes. This includes a comparative picture of student performance in reading,
mathematical and scientific literacy as well as of students’ civic engagement and attitudes. The picture is not
limited to national performance levels, but also examines questions of equity in learning outcomes and
opportunities as well as the broader private and social returns that accrue to investments in education. New
information on student learning conditions, including the learning climate in the classroom and the use of
information technology in education, as well as on teacher working conditions provides a better understanding of
key determinants of educational success.
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Finally, for many indicators, a significantly larger number of OECD countries are now providing data. Through the u
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World Education Indicators programme, a wide range of non-member countries have also contributed to this a
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year’s edition of Education at a Glance, extending the coverage of some of the indicators to almost two-thirds of io
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the world population.
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The data underlying the OECD education indicators are accessible via the Internet

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(www.oecd.org/els/education/eag2002). la
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FURTHER READING c
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The companion volume Education Policy Analysis takes up selected themes of key importance for governments.

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OECD's books, periodicals and statistical databases are now available via www.SourceOECD.org, our online library. D
This book is available to subscribers to the following SourceOECD themes : IC
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Education and Skills T
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Emerging Economies
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Transition Economies S
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Ask your librarian for more details of how to access OECD books online, or write to us at 0
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ISBN 92-64-19890-3
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Education at a Glance
OECD INDICATORS 2002
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
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ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION
AND DEVELOPMENT
Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came
into force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) shall promote policies designed:
– to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of
living in Member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the
development of the world economy;
– to contribute to sound economic expansion in Member as well as non-member countries in the
process of economic development; and
– to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance
with international obligations.
The original Member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The following countries
became Members subsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter: Japan
(28thApril1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), New Zealand (29th May 1973),
Mexico (18th May 1994), theCzech Republic (21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland
(22ndNovember 1996), Korea (12th December 1996) and Slovak Republic (14th December 2000). The
Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD (Article 13 of the OECD
Convention).
The Centre for Educational Research and Innovation was created in June 1968 by the Council of the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development and all Member countries of the OECD are participants.
The main objectives of the Centre are as follows:
– analyse and develop research, innovation and key indicators in current and emerging education and learning issues,
and their links to other sectors of policy;
– explore forward-looking coherent approaches to education and learning in the context of national and international
cultural, social and economic change; and
– facilitate practical co-operation among Member countries and, where relevant, with non-member countries, in order
to seek solutions and exchange views of educational problems of common interest.
The Centre functions within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in accordance with the
decisions of the Council of the Organisation, under the authority of the Secretary-General. It is supervised by a Governing
Board composed of one national expert in its field of competence from each of the countries participating in its programme
of work.
Publié en français sous le titre :
Regards sur l'éducation
Les indicateurs de l'OCDE 2002
© OECD 2002
Permission to reproduce a portion of this work for non-commercial purposes or classroom use should be obtained
through the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC), 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris,
France, tel. [phone], fax [phone], for every country except the United States. In the United States
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FOREWORD
Compelling incentives for individuals, economies and societies to raise levels of education have been the
driving force behind increased participation in a widening range of learning activities – by people of all
ages, from earliest childhood to advanced adulthood. As the demand for learning spreads and becomes
more diverse, the challenge for governments is to ensure that the nature and types of learning opportunities
respond in a cost-effective manner to real, dynamic needs.
In searching for effective education policies that enhance individuals’ social and economic prospects,
provide incentives for greater efficiency in schooling and help to mobilise resources in order to meet
rising demands for education, governments are paying increasing attention to international comparisons.
Through co-operation within the OECD framework, countries are seeking to learn from each other about
how to overcome barriers to investment in education and to secure the benefits of education for all, how
to foster competencies for the knowledge society, and how to manage teaching and learning in order to
promote learning throughout life.
As part of the drive to enhance the OECD’s work in this area and to better respond to the needs of
citizens and governments, the OECD has elevated the education group in its Secretariat to the level of an
independent Directorate. A central part of the Directorate for Education’s strategy is the development
and analysis of quantitative indicators that provide an opportunity for governments to see their education
system in the light of other countries’ performances. Together with OECD’s country policy reviews, the
indicators are designed to support and review efforts which governments are making towards policy
reform.
The publication Education at a Glance – OECD Indicators 2002 is a key instrument for disseminating the indicators
to a range of users, from governments seeking to learn policy lessons, academics requiring data for further
analysis, to the general public wanting to monitor how its nation’s schools are progressing in producing
world-class students. It does so by providing a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators that reflect
a consensus among professionals on how to measure the current state of education internationally.
The 2002 edition of Education at a Glance adds three important improvements to its predecessors: First,
OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which governments launched to monitor
student performance regularly within an internationally agreed framework, provides now comparable
information on the outcomes of education and learning as well as on key factors shaping these outcomes.
Such information has long been a critical gap in the indicator set. Second, a growing proportion of the
indicators now looks beyond aggregate country performance and incorporates variations within countries
that allow an examination of issues of equity in the provision and outcomes of education, on dimensions
such as gender, age, socio-economic background, type of institution, or field of education. Third, the work
is now being organised within a new framework that groups the indicators according to whether they
speak to educational outcomes for individuals and countries, the policy levers or circumstances that shape
these outcomes, or to antecedents or constraints that set the context for policy choices.
The publication is the product of a longstanding, collaborative effort between OECD governments, the
experts and institutions working within the framework of OECD’s education indicators programme
(INES), and the OECD Secretariat. The publication was drafted by the Division for Education Indica-
EDUCATION AT A GLANCE © OECD 2002 3
FOREWORD
tors and Analysis, under the responsibility of Andreas Schleicher, in co-operation with Eric Charbonnier,
Hannah Cocks, Jean-Luc Heller, Judit Kadar-Fülop, Karine Tremblay and Claire Shewbridge. The devel-
opment of the publication was steered by INES National Co-ordinators in Member countries and facili-
tated by the financial and material support of the three countries responsible for co-ordinating the INES
Networks - the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States. In addition, work on the publication has been
aided by a grant from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the United States. The Annex
lists the members of the various bodies as well as the individual experts who have contributed to this pub-
lication and the OECD education indicators more generally.
While much progress has been accomplished in recent years, significant further work is needed to link
better a broad range of policy needs with the best available data. Future work will need to continue to
address various challenges and tradeoffs: First, the indicators need to respond to educational issues that
are high on national policy agendas, and where the international comparative perspective can offer impor-
tant added value to what can be accomplished through national analysis and evaluation. Second, while the
indicators need to be as comparable as possible, they also need to be as country-specific as is necessary
to allow for historical, systemic and cultural differences between countries. Third, the indicators need to
be presented in as straightforward a manner as possible, but remain sufficiently complex to reflect multi-
faceted educational realities. Fourth, there is a general desire to keep the indicator set as small as possible,
but it needs to be large enough to be useful to policy-makers in countries that face different educational
challenges.
The new organisational structure at the OECD provides the framework to address these challenges more
vigorously and to pursue not just the development of indicators in areas where it is feasible and promising
to develop data, but also to advance in areas where a considerable investment still needs to be made in
conceptual work.
The report is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD.
Barry McGaw
Director for Education
OECD
4 EDUCATION AT A GLANCE © OECD 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS Name of the
indicator
in the 2001
edition
Introduction..............................................................................................7
The 2002 edition of Education at a Glance................................................ 7
Contents and highlights....................................................................... 9
Further resources .............................................................................21
Reader’s guide.......................................................................................... 23
Chapter A: The output of educational institutions and the impact of learning. 27
A1 Current upper secondary graduation rates and attainment of the adult C2, A2
population......................................................................................31
A2 Current tertiary graduation and survival rates and attainment of the adult C4, A2
population......................................................................................39
A3 Educational attainment of the labour force and adult population.....................49 A2.1
A4 Graduates by fi eld of study ..................................................................56 C4
A5 Reading literacy of 15-year-olds............................................................63 -
A6 Mathematical and scientifi c literacy of 15-year-olds.....................................73 -
A7 How student performance varies between schools......................................82 -
A8 Civic knowledge and engagement..........................................................91 -
A9 Occupational status of parents and student performance ..............................97 -
A10 Place of birth, language spoken at home, and reading literacy of 15-year-olds...102 -
A11 Labour force participation by level of educational attainment.......................110 E1
A12 Expected years in education, employment and non-employment between the E2
ages of 15 and 29............................................................................119
A13 The returns to education: Private and social rates of returns to education and E5
their determinants ..........................................................................123
A14 The returns to education: Links between human capital and economic growth..135 A3
Chapter B: Financial and human resources invested in education .................141
B1 Educational expenditure per student ....................................................145 B1
B2 Expenditure on educational institutions relative to Gross Domestic Product ....161 B2
B3 Total public expenditure on education...................................................174 B4
B4 Relative proportions of public and private investment in educational institutions..179 B3
B5 Support for students and households through public subsidies......................192 B5
B6 Expenditure on institutions by service category and by resource category........200 B6
Chapter C: Access to education, participation and progression....................211
C1 School expectancy and enrolment rates (2000)........................................214 C1, C3
C2 Entry to and expected years in tertiary education and participation in secondary C1, C3
education .....................................................................................222
C3 Foreign students in tertiary education...................................................236 C5 (2000)
C4 Participation in continuing education and training in the adult population........246 C6
C5 Education and work status of the youth population...................................252 E3
C6 The situation of the youth population with low levels of education................263 -
Chapter D: The learning environment and organisation of schools...............269
D1 Total intended instruction time for students 9 to 14 years of age...................273 D4
D2 Class size and ratio of students to teaching staff........................................287 D5
D3 Use and availability of computers at school and in the home........................294 D7
D4 Attitudes and experiences of males and females using information technology..307 -
D5 Classroom and school climate.............................................................315 -
D6 Salaries of teachers in public primary and secondary schools........................331 D1
D7 Teaching time and teachers’ working time..............................................342 D3
EDUCATION AT A GLANCE © OECD 2002 5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Annex 1. Typical graduation ages ..............................................................351
Annex 2. Basic reference statistics..............................................................357
Annex 3. Sources, methods and technical notes...........................................363
Glossary..................................................................................................364
Contributors to this publication................................................................378
Related publications ................................................................................382
6 EDUCATION AT A GLANCE © OECD 2002
INTRODUCTION
THE 2002 EDITION OF EDUCATION AT A GLANCE
TThhee OOEECCDD iinnddiiccaattoorrss rreepprreesseenntt tthhee ccoonnsseennssuuss ooff pprrooffeessssiioonnaall tthhiinnkkiinngg oonn hhooww ttoo mmeeaassuurree tthhee ccuurrrreenntt ssttaattee ooff
eedduuccaattiioonn iinntteerrnnaattiioonnaallllyy..
Education at a Glance – OECD Indicators 2002 provides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of
indicators that reflect a consensus among professionals on how to measure the current state of education
internationally. They provide information on the human and financial resources invested in education, on
how education and learning systems operate and evolve, and on the returns to educational investments.
The indicators are organised thematically, and each is accompanied by background information. The 2002
edition of Education at a Glance adds three important improvements to its predecessors:
CCoommppaarraabbllee iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn oonn lleeaarrnniinngg oouuttccoommeess aaddddss aa nneeww ddiimmeennssiioonn ttoo tthhee OOEECCDD iinnddiiccaattoorrss,,……
OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which governments launched to
monitor student performance regularly within an internationally agreed framework, provides now
comparable information on the outcomes of education and learning as well as on key factors shaping these
outcomes. Such information has long been a critical gap in the indicator set. PISA aims to provide a new
basis for policy dialogue such that countries can work together to define educational goals that are both
innovative and realistic, and that reflect judgements concerning the skills that are relevant to adult life.
PISA is part of a shift in focus from education inputs and institutions to outcomes. The shift is designed
to support policy-makers as they attempt to improve schooling that prepares young people for adult life
during an era of rapid change and increasing global interdependence.
……bbeetttteerr iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn oonn ddiissppaarriittiieess iinn iinnddiivviidduuaall aanndd iinnssttiittuuttiioonnaall ppeerrffoorrmmaannccee iimmpprroovveess tthhee eexxaammiinnaattiioonn ooff eeqquuiittyy
iissssuueess iinn tthhee pprroovviissiioonn aanndd oouuttccoommeess ooff eedduuccaattiioonn,,……
A growing proportion of the indicators now looks beyond aggregate country performance and incorporates
variations within countries that allow an examination of issues of equity in the provision and outcomes of education
on dimensions such as gender, age, socio-economic background, type of institution, or field of education.
……aanndd aa nneeww oorrggaanniissiinngg ffrraammeewwoorrkk ffoorr tthhee iinnddiiccaattoorrss mmaakkeess tthheemm eeaassiieerr ttoo uussee ..
The OECD education indicators are being progressively integrated into a new framework. This
framework:
(cid:127) distinguishes between the actors in education systems: individual learners, instructional settings and
learning environments, educational service providers, and the education system as a whole;
(cid:127) groups the indicators according to whether they speak to learning outcomes for individuals and countries,
policy levers or circumstances that shape these outcomes, or to antecedents or constraints that set policy
choices into context; and
(cid:127) identifies the policy issues to which the indicators relate, with three major categories distinguishing
between the quality of educational outcomes and educational provision, issues of equity in educational
outcomes and educational opportunities, and the adequacy and effectiveness of resource management.
EDUCATION AT A GLANCE © OECD 2002 7
INTRODUCTION
The following matrix describes the fi rst two dimensions:
Education and learning Policy levers and contexts Antecedents or constraints
outputs and outcomes shaping educational outcomes that contextualise policy
Individual partici- 1. The quality and 5. Individual attitudes, 9. Background characteristics
pants in education and
distribution of individual engagement, and of the individual learners
learning
educational outcomes behaviour
Instructional settings 2. The quality of 6. Pedagogy and learning 10. Student learning
instructional delivery practices and classroom conditions and teacher
climate working conditions
Education providers 3. The output of educational 7. School environment and 11. Characteristics of the
institutions and organisation service providers and their
institutional performance communities
Education system as a 4. The overall performance 8. System-wide institutional 12. The national educational,
whole
of the education system settings, resource social, economic, and
allocations, and policies demographic context
8 EDUCATION AT A GLANCE © OECD 2002
INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS AND HIGHLIGHTS
The 2002 edition of Education at a Glance is divided into four chapters.
CChhaapptteerr AA eexxaammiinneess tthhee oouuttccoommeess ooff eedduuccaattiioonn aanndd lleeaarrnniinngg,, iinn tteerrmmss ooff……
……ccuurrrreenntt oouuttppuutt ooff eedduuccaattiioonnaall iinnssttiittuuttiioonnss aanndd eedduuccaattiioonnaall aattttaaiinnmmeenntt ooff tthhee aadduulltt ppooppuullaattiioonn,,……
Chapter A begins by examining graduation rates in upper secondary and tertiary levels of education
(Indicators A1 and A2). These indicators speak both to the institutional and the system-level output of
education systems. To gauge progress in educational output, current graduation rates are compared to the
educational attainment of older persons who left the education system at different points in time.
Countries’ progress is also reviewed in closing the gender gap in educational attainment and graduation
rates, both overall and across different fields of education (Indicators A1, A2 and A4).
Dropout and survival rates (Indicator A2) provide some indication of the internal efficiency of education
systems. Students leave educational programmes before their completion for many reasons - they realise
that they have chosen the wrong subject or educational programme, they fail to meet the standards set by
their educational institution, or they may want to work before completing their programme. Nevertheless,
high dropout rates indicate that the education system is not meeting the needs of its clients. Students may
find that the educational programmes do not meet their expectations or their needs in order to enter
the labour market, or that the programmes require more time outside the labour market than they can
justify.
• The proportion of individuals in the population who have not completed upper secondary education has
been falling in almost all OECD countries, and rapidly in some. In all but five OECD countries, the ratio
of upper secondary graduates to the population at the typical age of graduation now exceeds 70 per cent,
and in many countries, it exceeds 90 per cent (p. 32).
• An average of 26 per cent of persons at the typical age of graduation complete the tertiary-type A level
of education. This figure ranges from about one-third or more in Australia, Finland, Iceland, Poland, the
United Kingdom and the United States, to less than 20 per cent in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
Germany, Italy and Switzerland (p. 42).
• Among older age groups, women have attained lower levels of upper secondary education than men, but
for younger people, this pattern is now reversing. Today, graduation rates for women exceed those for
men in most countries (p. 34).
• In the humanities, arts, education, health and welfare, more than two-thirds of the tertiary-type A
graduates are women, on average in OECD countries, whereas it is less than one-third in mathematics and
science and less than one-quarter in engineering, manufacturing and construction (p. 58).
• The adult population now possesses a greater stock of university-level skills, but most of this increase is due
to significant increases in tertiary graduation rates in a comparatively small number of countries (p. 43).
• On average, one-third of OECD students drop out before they complete their first tertiary-level degree (p. 44).
EDUCATION AT A GLANCE © OECD 2002 9