Future Now
The IFTF Blog
World's best education systems?
The OECD has published its 2005 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators, a global comparative study of the primary and secondary school systems. This year's list of the top 30 countries:
1 South Korea
2 Norway
3 Slovak Republic
4 Japan
5 Czech Republic
6 Sweden
7 Canada
8 Finland
9 United States
10 Denmark
11 Austria
12 Germany
13 New Zealand
14 Hungary
15 France
16 Ireland
17 Belgium
18 Switzerland
19 Netherlands
20 Australia
21 Greece
22 United Kingdom
23 Luxembourg
24 Iceland
25 Italy
26 Spain
27 Poland
28 Portugal
29 Turkey
30 Mexico
I'm always more than a little skeptical of these national comparisons; on the whole, they're better than school-by-school comparisons, but I think it's more useful to compare the curves for national school systems-- i.e., how many schools are good, how the best schools in different countries compare, etc.. You'll notice that neither China nor India are in the top 30, but there's no question that they turn out some of the world's smartest, best-prepared high school students-- and millions of other students who are stuck in bad schools, or never have the chance to compete for spaces at good schools.