DIRECTION DES RELATIONS EXTÉRIEURES ET DE LA COMMUNICATION PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTORATE Division des Relations extérieures Public Affairs Division Le Chef de Section The Head of Section 2, rue André-Pascal,  75775 Paris Cedex 16,  France   Tél : +33 (0) 1 45 24 82 00 Ligne directe/Direct line : +33 (0) 1 +33 1 45 24 80 94      E-mail : [email protected]   www.oecd.org 17 December 2004 Dear colleague, It is my great pleasure to invite you to participate in the OECD’s High Level Parliamentary Seminar on education, which will take place at OECD headquarters in Paris on Wednesday 23 February 2005.   The seminar  will  feature,  in  particular,  the  latest  results  from  the  Programme  for  International  Student Assessment  (PISA),  an  internationally  standardised  assessment  that  was  jointly  developed  by  participating countries and administered to15-year-olds in schools.   The  survey,  which  has  had  a  tremendous  impact  in  those  countries  which  have  participated  by highlighting the relative strengths and weaknesses of their national school systems, was implemented in 43 countries in the first assessment in 2000.  The results have just been published for the second assessment in 2003 involving 41 countries, and at least 58 countries will participate in the third assessment in 2006. Other  pertinent  work  of  the  OECD  in  the  area  of  education  such  as  the  internationalization  of higher  education  and  the  quality  of  the  teaching  workforce  will  be  presented  to  Parliamentarians  at  the seminar in order to get their views in these areas of OECD work and support in moving the agenda forward.   This  work  aims  to  help governments  and  societies  provide  the  highest  quality  education  for  children  and adults, preparing them for a rich and productive life. And so, I hope that you will be able to join us for this important event. I would be very grateful if you could inform Meggan Dissly [email protected] by January 31, 2005 as to whether you can accept this invitation. With my best regards,   Yours sincerely, John West

2 HIGH LEVEL PARLIAMENTARY SEMINAR ON EDUCATION 23 FEBRUARY 2005 AT THE OECD   19, RUE FRANQUEVILLE 75016 PARIS   Seminar objectives and organisation Parliamentarians have a key role to play in helping governments and societies to improve the quality of education and thereby prepare children for their role in society as responsible productive adults.   The objectives of this seminar will be to: < share with parliamentarians the OECD's work on education; < listen  to  their  views  on  the  challenge  of  implementing  the  necessary  reforms  to  improve  the quality of schools and teaching; < seek parliamentarians' support for building the necessary political will and momentum to push this agenda forward. This seminar will be held at OECD headquarters on 23 February, the day following the meeting of the Economic and Social Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.  Members of this Parliamentary Assembly  will  be  invited  to  participate,  along  with  a  number  of  other  parliamentarians  from  OECD countries.    The seminar will be held from 10am to 5pm and include a working lunch. Background More  than  250,000  15-year-old  students  in  41  countries  took  part  in  the  Programme  for  International Student Assessment 2003 (PISA), the second three-yearly survey of its kind. The survey involves pencil and paper  tests  lasting  two  hours,  taken  in  the  students'  schools.  The  main  focus  in  PISA  2003  was  on mathematics, but the survey also looked at student performance in problem-solving, science and reading and at students' approaches to learning and attitudes to school.   Finland already led in the PISA 2000 reading assessment, and in PISA 2003 it maintained its high level of reading literacy while further improving its performance in mathematics and science. In mathematics, where the PISA 2003 tests sought to establish how well students can develop and apply mathematical models to deal with real-life tasks and interpret, validate and communicate the results, top-performing OECD countries also include the Netherlands. Most other countries' relative positions in the PISA 2003 survey remained broadly similar to those in PISA 2000,  but  some  showed  notable  changes.  Poland's  overall  performance  rose  thanks  to  big  improvements

3 among lower-performing students in the wake of a major reform of the education system in 1999. Smaller but  still  noteworthy  improvements  in  at  least  two  assessment  areas  also  occurred  in  Belgium,  the  Czech Republic and Germany. Some low-performing countries showed only small improvements or actually did less well, widening the gap between the best and poorest performers. Overall,  wealthier  countries  tend  to  do  better  in  educational  terms  than  poor  nations,  but  there  are exceptions: Korea's national income, for example, is 30 per cent below the OECD average but its students are among the best performers in OECD countries. Nor is high expenditure necessarily a key to success: a number of countries do well in terms of "value for money" in their education systems, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, Korea and the Netherlands, while some of the "big spenders"  perform  below  the  OECD  average.  (Data  for  the  United  Kingdom  are  not  included,  due  to insufficient response rates of students and schools. In PISA 2000, data for the Netherlands were excluded for the same reason).   The results of PISA 2003 suggest that both students and schools perform best in a climate characterised by high  expectations  that  are  supported  through  strong  teacher-student  relations,  students  who  are  ready  to invest effort and who show interest and lower levels of anxiety with mathematics, and a positive disciplinary climate.  In  most  of  the  countries  that  performed  well,  local  authorities  and  schools  also  have  substantial responsibility for educational content and/or the use of resources, and many set out to teach heterogeneous groups    of    learners.    Further    information    on    Pisa    can    be    found    at    www.oecd.org/pisa The quality of the teaching workforce is a major consideration in any nation’s aspirations for an educational system of high quality.  Teachers form the core of the school system and a wide range of research studies has confirmed the importance of teacher quality for student learning.  Thus, the development of policies seeking to improve the quality of teachers and ensure that all students receive quality teaching is a central concern for governments.   Teacher policy is currently high on the agenda of OECD countries.  Substantial policy initiatives are under way  in  a  range  of  areas  including  improving  teacher  recruitment  and  supply,  reforming  initial  teacher education  and  professional  development,  restructuring  teachers’  work  and  careers,  and  strengthening leadership in schools.  In addition to questions about the changing roles of teachers and the attractiveness of teaching  overall,  there  are  also  important  issues  concerned  with  diversification  of  teachers’  roles,  more flexible pathways into teaching, incentive structures rewarding the skills and performance that most closely relate to student learning, as well as teacher development and accountability. Higher  education  has  become  increasingly  international  in  the  past  decade  as  more  and  more  students choose to study abroad, enrol in foreign education programmes and institutions in their home country, or simply use the Internet to take courses at colleges or universities in other countries.  This growth is the result of several different, but not mutually exclusive, driving forces:  a desire to promote mutual understanding; the migration of skilled workers in a globalised economy; the desire of the institutions to generate additional revenues;  or  the  need  to  build  a  more  educated  workforce  in  the  home  countries,  generally  as  emerging economies. But the growth and diversification of cross-border education raises a number of questions for governments and  higher  education  institutions.    Is  capacity  being  increased  to  meet  growing  demand?  Is  access  being widened? Are costs being lowered for students or governments? Is liberalization an answer to the growing importance of private provision as well as the rise in the demand for higher education?