The Learning Curve 2014 report, published by Pearson, explores factors behind global performance shifts in global education league tables and the importance of 21st Century skills.The new Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Attainment, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, finds that:
· South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong claim top spots in overall education ranking due to a ‘culture of accountability’ in which teachers, students and parents all take responsibility for education, and society values teachers and schools far more highly than in many other parts of the world.
· Finland drops to 5th from 1st position mainly because of decreases in its reported maths and science literacy.
· UK holds steady at 6th position due to improvement in its PISA, TIMMS and PIRLS test scores and a rise in its tertiary graduation rate. Canada and the Netherlands are also in the top ten.
· Many emerging economies are putting increased funding into education – but this is not yet improving outcomes. Three of the world’s biggest emerging economies Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia are ranked at the bottom of the Index.
The accompanying Learning Curve report, on the theme of skills, finds that:
· All adults lose skills as they age, but they decline far more rapidly when not used regularly at work.
· Skills only improve at a national level when governments, employers, schools, students and parents all prioritise them.
Alongside the new Index, Pearson has also published a new open Data Bank of 2,500 educational, economic and social indicators relating to a total of 50 countries, which is available at thelearningcurve.pearson.com.
The Data Bank draws on the three most respected global education studies - PISA, TIMMS, PIRLS – and combines them with national statistics on education, GDP, employment, crime rates, and other factors to create a comprehensive set of information for researchers and policy makers to draw on.
Deepak Mehrotra, Managing Director, Pearson India shared:
Learning Curve is an ambitious effort to gather a wide range of information on education inputs and outputs over an extended period of time. Through the report series, Pearson aims to globally create the most comprehensive source of education data and evidence, making it open and searchable for educators and thought leaders.
The research insights provide valuable inputs for the education sectors across the globe to compare, measure and use. This can help improve country level educational systems. Pearson encourages teachers, parents, governments and academicians - in fact anyone interested in education - to rely on data and evidence when making decisions.
As the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test results by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) do not exist for India and China at a national level we don’t see much data on our country, but the global data on learning outcomes definitely helps to positively influence Indian education policy at local, regional and national levels.
John Fallon, Chief Executive of Pearson commented:
"One of the most pervasive and endemic problems in education in just about every country is the lack of attention paid to skills provision. In rich countries and emerging economies, the demand for better skills is urgent - as governments strive to create rewarding jobs for their citizens.
"The Learning Curve brings together a growing body of evidence on what works in education. We hope it is a small but important contribution to improving learning outcomes on a global basis. As educational debates shift from a focus on inputs to learning outcomes, we hope what we have discovered will drive others to take up the baton and do more work in this field.”
