TUAC - TRADE UNION ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE OECD

09/09/2008

TUAC welcomes the publication of the 2008 issue of Education at a Glance (EAG 2008), providing internationally comparable indicators and allowing for meaningful comparisons of national education systems across the OECD and some partner countries. The good news in this respect is the fact that the expansion in educational participation is going on and that resources available for primary, secondary and tertiary education have increased. The proportion of individuals who have completed upper secondary education has been growing in almost all OECD countries. Tertiary attainment levels have also increased substantially. 

However, a closer inspection of the data provided reveals that Education at a Glance also contains some bad and disappointing news, suggesting that the gap between the rhetoric and reality of educational policy has not been narrowed sufficiently. A number of structural changes and factors characterizing the domain of education and training are a cause of particular concern for TUAC and its affiliates. They are related to insufficient public spending on education, equity issues regarding access to education and training, in particular an ongoing strong socio-economic selection into higher education, the failure of governments to put a sufficient concept of lifelong learning into practice as well as problems regarding the transition from education to work.

TUAC comments are attached.