OECD releases the 2008 Education at a glance report

Media Release, The Hon Julia Gillard MP, 9 September 2008; The Advertiser, 10 September 2008;
The Age, 10 September 2008

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released the 2008 edition of its Education at a Glance report. The report provides comparative data for a range of indicators on the performance of education systems in OECD nations, and attempts to establish an international consensus on how to measure the state of education internationally.

The report investigates who participates in all levels of education, what is spent on education, how education systems operate and what results have been achieved.

The Education at a Glance report found that Australian primary schools had the eighth largest average class sizes of the 30 OECD members. Australian primary classes had an average of 24 students, compared to an OECD average of 21.5 students. 

According to the report, Australian students spent nine hours of classroom time on reading, writing and literature, compared to an OECD average of 15 hours.

Sixty eight per cent of Australian secondary students have completed school, compared to an OECD average of 60 per cent. Even though Australia has increased its ‘tertiary participation rate’, the report claims that Australia has ‘forced’ higher education students to ‘take on more of the cost’ of their education.

Australian teachers were also found to be amongst the highest paid in OECD members. Both the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Julia Gillard, and the Shadow Minister for Education, Mr Tony Smith, indicated that the report demonstrated that Australia had a strong education system but that improvements were still required.

Visit the OECD website to access a copy of the report.

 

 

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