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As countries seek to draw lessons the COVID-19 crisis and increase their future resilience, evaluations are important tools to understand what worked or not, why and for whom. This report builds on the OECD work on “government evaluations of COVID-19 responses”. It evaluates Belgium’s responses to the pandemic in terms of risk preparedness, crisis management, as well as public health, education, economic and fiscal, and social and labour market policies. Preserving the country’s resilience in the future will require promoting trust in public institutions and whole-of-government approaches to crisis management, reducing inequalities, and preserving the fiscal balance. The findings and recommendations of this report will provide guidance to public authorities in these efforts.

In 2024, education and training systems have a ‘unique potential’ to build the foundations of equitable, sustainable societies. In the OECD National Survey for Comparative Policy Analysis 2023: Empowering Learners to go Green, 90% of participating systems identified environmental sustainability as a key priority for 2024. There is no trade-off between addressing the biggest challenge facing people and the planet and responding to other external shocks and long-term evolutions, especially since these will only become increasingly interdependent. This implies empowering lifelong learners, institutions and education systems with the agency required to act, today. Building on the OECD’s Framework of Responsiveness and Resilience in Education Policy, survey responses from 36 education systems and international policy analysis, this report explores how education systems can: 1) translate learners’ awareness into environmental action; 2) provide learners with experiences to shape the green economy; and 3) position education as a strategic sector for the green transition. By exploring these areas, the report aims to support countries to follow up on the goals established by the 2022 OECD Declaration on Building Equitable Societies Through Education. The report is part of the Education Policy Outlook series—the OECD’s analytical observatory of education policy.

This publication provides additional reference material for Education at a Glance 2023, the authoritative source for data on the state of education around the world. It provides guidance on the data and methodology used to calculate each indicator. It also contains references to the sources and specific notes for each country.

La República Dominicana ha experimentado importantes avances socioeconómicos en las últimas décadas. El país ha sido una de las principales economías de América Latina y el Caribe en términos de crecimiento económico, alcanzando el estatus de economía de ingreso medio-alto en 2011. Sin embargo, los avances en las diferentes dimensiones del bienestar han sido insuficientes. En particular, las disparidades socioeconómicas y territoriales siguen siendo importantes, y las instituciones públicas aún enfrentan desafíos relevantes. Para que la República Dominicana avance en una senda de desarrollo más inclusivo y sostenible, es necesario abordar tres dimensiones críticas. En primer lugar, proporcionar empleos de calidad para todos, con especial énfasis en impulsar la formalización y la transformación productiva. En segundo lugar, movilizar más financiamiento público y privado para el desarrollo, con sistemas fiscales más progresivos y eficaces, un gasto público más eficiente, y mercados de capitales más profundos. En tercer lugar, acelerar la transformación digital para impulsar la productividad, mejorar la inclusión y apoyar la creación de empleo.

El Salvador ha consolidado importantes avances en su desarrollo en los últimos 30 años. El fin de la guerra civil en 1992 señaló el establecimiento de una democracia liberal y de un modelo de desarrollo abierto basado en la exportación, que contribuyó a reducir la pobreza y la desigualdad. Sin embargo, el modelo de la posguerra no ha generado el dinamismo económico o los puestos de trabajo que el país necesita. El crecimiento económico fue moderado en los años previos a la pandemia de COVID-19, promediando 2.4%, y la productividad creció al 0.1% durante la pasada década. Para impulsar un desarrollo más sólido, inclusivo y sostenible son necesarias acciones decisivas. Basándose en un análisis multidimensional del desarrollo en El Salvador este informe plantea cuatro recomendaciones prioritarias: 1) sentar las condiciones para la transformación productiva y la modernización de la economía; 2) aumentar la cantidad, calidad y pertinencia de la educación; 3) gestionar mejor los recursos hídricos para llevar agua y saneamiento a todos de manera sostenible; y 4) modernizar el Estado para que pueda generar bienes públicos clave – desde la seguridad ciudadana a la educación o la salud – de manera eficaz, y conducir el país hacia la próxima etapa de su desarrollo.

Digitalisation is transforming education as well as social and economic life, with implications for childhood. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), with its immense potential to shape children’s early development, learning and well-being, can play a major role in addressing the opportunities and risks that digitalisation brings to young children. Digitalisation also creates new ways of working that have the potential to lead to quality improvement in the ECEC sector. This report provides a 360-degree view of the challenges of digitalisation in ECEC and possible policy responses.

The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the long-standing skills shortages in the health workforce across countries. Equipping health workers with the right skills is essential to respond to future health crises, to prepare for increasing use of digital technologies, and to plan for demographic change. This joint report by the OECD and ILO aims to enable more resilient health workforces by helping countries to assess future demand in terms of both numbers of health workers and skills needs, and to prepare appropriate policy responses. The report provides a comparative overview of practices in 16 countries to anticipate future skill needs in the health workforce, and of how such information is used by policy makers and social partners to foster a better alignment with labour market needs. Analysis is based on interviews with institutions that are responsible for anticipating skill needs in the health workforce, a virtual peer-learning workshop and desk research.

The effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (with its dramatic impact on energy and food prices), the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and extreme weather events in some parts of the world in 2022 are expected to reverberate into 2023. International implications for education and training include economic uncertainty and tight labour markets, ongoing digital transformation, and continued growth and influence of mass information. These trends challenge education policymakers to transform existing pathways in their countries and economies, so people can become effective lifelong learners to navigate change. Building on the OECD’s Framework of Responsiveness and Resilience in Education Policy, as well as analysis of international policies and practices from over 40 education systems implemented mainly since 2020, this report identifies three areas of policy effort that education policymakers can undertake in 2023: 1) enhancing the relevance of learning pathways; 2) easing transitions throughout learners’ pathways; and 3) nurturing learners’ aspirations. Lessons emerging from recent policy efforts are synthesised into key policy pointers for 2023. The report has been prepared with evidence from the Education Policy Outlook series—the OECD’s analytical observatory of education policy.

As countries seek to learn from the COVID-19 crisis and increase their resilience for the future, evaluations are important tools to understand what worked or not, why and for whom. This report is the first of its kind. It evaluates Luxembourg’s responses to the COVID-19 crisis in terms of risk preparedness, crisis management, as well as public health, education, economic and fiscal, and social and labour market policies. While Luxembourg’s response to the pandemic has been particularly agile, preserving the country’s resilience will require maintaining high levels of trust in government, reducing inequalities, and laying the foundations for inclusive growth. The findings and recommendations of this report will provide guidance to public authorities in these efforts.

One of a series of studies on vocational education and training (VET), this report focuses on how international evidence can inform reforms of the VET system in Brazil. The reforms aim to considerably expand provision of initial VET, tripling enrolment between 2014-2024. Today, few upper-secondary students participate in VET in Brazil as compared to many OECD countries. The reform is a welcome initiative, provided that the expansion is coupled with investments in quality. Expansion of VET is likely to diversify the students attending VET programmes and increase the demand for VET teachers, and schools will need the support to make this work while ensuring that the programmes they offer are relevant for the labour market. By international standards, employers in Brazil provide limited input into VET policy and very few VET students have an opportunity of training with employers, and the reforms could be an opportunity to strengthen their involvement. Moreover, the reform could reinforce assessment strategies, as a lack of reliable assessment may decrease the value of VET qualifications. To support reform efforts in Brazil, this report brings in international evidence and discusses how other countries are addressing various related challenges encountered in their VET systems.

Education systems operate in a world that is constantly evolving towards new equilibria, yet short-term crises may disrupt, accelerate or divert longer-term evolutions. This Framework for Responsiveness and Resilience in Education Policy aims to support policy makers to balance the urgent challenge of building eco-systems that adapt in the face of disruption and change (resilience), and the important challenge of navigating the ongoing evolution from industrial to post-industrial societies and economies (responsiveness). Building on international evidence and analysis from over 40 education systems, this framework endeavours to establish tangible, transferable and actionable definitions of resilience. These definitions, which are the goals of the framework (Why?), are underpinned by policy components of responsiveness (What?), which define priority areas for education policy makers. Policy pointers for resilience (How?) then illustrate how policy makers can apply these components in ways that promote resilience at the learner, broader learning environment and system levels of the policy ecosystem. Finally, a transversal component looks into the people and the processes undertaken in order to reach a given purpose (Who?). The report has been prepared with evidence from the Education Policy Outlook series – the OECD’s analytical observatory of education policy.

Ireland is undertaking a review of their senior cycle (upper secondary education) led by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). It aims at collecting the views of all relevant stakeholders to identify the strengths and challenges of senior cycle in its current form, and identify priority issues and actions to move forward. As part of OECD’s implementing education policies project, an OECD team was invited to support the review of Ireland’s senior cycle. The team has carried out the assessment presented here and provided strategic advice based on four analytical aspects: smart policy design, inclusive stakeholder engagement, conducive context and a coherent implementation strategy. Each one of these dimensions matters to ensure that the review of senior cycle can move forward based on evidence and with strong support from stakeholders.