Education at a Glance 2013

Foreword
Governments are paying increasing attention to international comparisons as they search for effective policies
that enhance individuals’ social and economic prospects, provide incentives for greater efficiency in schooling,
and help to mobilise resources to meet rising demands. As part of its response, the OECD Directorate for
Education and Skills devotes a major effort to the development and analysis of the quantitative, internationally
comparable indicators that it publishes annually in Education at a Glance. These indicators enable educational
policy makers and practitioners alike to see their education systems in light of other countries’ performance
and, together with the OECD country policy reviews, are designed to support and review the efforts that
governments are making towards policy reform.
Education at a Glance addresses the needs of a range of users, from governments seeking to learn policy lessons
to academics requiring data for further analysis to the general public wanting to monitor how its country’s
schools are progressing in producing world-class students. The publication examines the quality of learning
outcomes, the policy levers and contextual factors that shape these outcomes, and the broader private and
social returns that accrue to investments in education.
Education at a Glance is the product of a long-standing, collaborative effort between OECD governments,
the experts and institutions working within the framework of the OECD Indicators of Education Systems
(INES) programme and the OECD Secretariat. The publication was prepared by the staff of the Innovation
and Measuring Progress Division of the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, under the responsibility
of Dirk Van Damme and Corinne Heckmann and in co-operation with Etienne Albiser, Simone Bloem,
Rodrigo Castaneda-Valle, Eric Charbonnier, Estelle Herbaut, Karinne Logez, Koji Miyamoto, Joris Ranchin,
Cuauhtemoc Rebolledo-Gomez, Gara Rojas González, David Valenciano, and Jean Yip. Administrative support
was provided by Rhodia Diallo, editing of the report was undertaken by Marilyn Achiron, and additional
advice as well as analytical and editorial support were provided by Gwenaelle Barach, Marika Boiron,
Célia  Braga-Schich, Elizabeth  Del  Bourgo, Caroline Israël, Diane  Lalancette and Ignacio  Marin. The
authoring team benefited from the analytical review of Sam Abrams, Francesco Avvisati, Tracey Burns,
Sonia Guerriero, Hiroko Ikesako, David Istance, Marco Kools, Katarzyna Kubacka, Pauline Musset, Anna Pons,
Miho Taguma, Willam Thorn, Juliana Zapata and Pablo Zoido. Production of the report was co-ordinated
by Elisabeth Villoutreix. The development of the publication was steered by member countries through the
INES Working Party and facilitated by the INES Networks. The members of the various bodies as well as the
individual experts who have contributed to this publication and to OECD INES more generally are listed at
the end of the book.
While much progress has been accomplished in recent years, member countries and the OECD continue to strive
to strengthen the link between policy needs and the best available internationally comparable data. This presents
various challenges and trade-offs. First, the indicators need to respond to educational issues that are high on
national policy agendas, and where the international comparative perspective can offer important added value
to what can be accomplished through national analysis and evaluation. Second, while the indicators should 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, while remaining 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 across countries that face different educational challenges.Foreword
4 Education at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators © OECD 2013
The OECD will continue to address these challenges 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 further development of the
OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and its extension through the OECD Survey
of Adult Skills, a product of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC),
as well as the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), are major efforts to this end.