OECD Releases 2009 Education at a Glance Report

Media Release, The Hon. Julia Gillard, MP, 9 September 2009; The Age, 9 September2009; Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September 2009; The West Australian, 9 September 2009

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released the 2009 edition of its annual Education at a Glance report.

The report provides comparative data from 2007 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. It investigates who participates in all levels of education, what is spent on education, how education systems operate and what results have been achieved.

The report found that Australian primary schools spent significantly less classroom time on literacy and numeracy teaching, with Australian students aged between 9 and 11 years spending an average of 13 per cent of their instruction time on reading, writing and literature, compared to an OECD average of 23 per cent. The same students also spent an average of 9 per cent of their time on mathematics, compared to an average of 16 per cent.

However, the report also noted that these results were a reflection of the flexible nature of the Australian curriculum, which has less time allocated to particular subjects. The report also noted that Australian students aged between 7 and 14 received almost 8000 hours of compulsory education, the fourth highest of the reported countries.

The report also found that:

• Australia had the highest rate of entry to tertiary education in the OECD
• the proportion of education funding from private sources was comparatively high in Australia
• Australian teachers faced teaching loads well above the OECD average.
• starting salaries for Australian teachers were relatively high, but that they declined at more senior levels compared to other countries. The report warned that Australian teachers may become disenfranchised when they discovered that relatively high starting salaries were not maintained during their careers.

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

 

 

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