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Earthquake-prone communities need earthquake-resistant schools. In 2002, a primary school in San Giuliano, Italy, collapsed killing 29 children and one teacher. In May 2003, a medium-sized earthquake in the city of Bingöl, Turkey, caused the collapse of three new schools and a dormitory, killing many children as they slept. All too frequently, earthquakes cause the collapse of school buildings and the injury and death of staff and students. Further, when schools are closed because of earthquake damage, education is hampered, community life disrupted, and potential emergency shelters unavailable. Where school attendance is compulsory, communities have an obligation to provide a safe study and work environment.

Why do schools collapse even during moderate earthquakes? Experts agree that many collapse due to avoidable errors in design and construction. Often, the needed technology is not applied and laws and regulations are not sufficiently enforced. Application of existing knowledge can significantly lower the seismic risk of schools and help prevent further injury and death of school occupants during earthquakes. Moreover, this can be accomplished at reasonable cost and within a reasonable period.

Keeping Schools Safe in Earthquakes presents expert knowledge, opinions and experiences, and provides valuable insight into the scope of problems involved in protecting schools and their occupants. Its recommendations are a call to action to all governments in OECD and partner countries to help facilitate their implementation.

To function and prosper in the learning society, the management of knowledge is becoming a new and crucial challenge for both private companies and public organisations. It is increasingly important for companies and organisations to produce, share and use knowledge on a national and global scale. However, there is an urgent need for analysis of the knowledge economy both at the micro- and macro economic level in order to understand its characteristics and dynamics, and to identify the most appropriate routes for policy development. Little is known on how sectors and organisations could use knowledge more efficiently and how to benchmark organisations as learning organisations. This book is an ambitious attempt to address these issues through a better understanding of knowledge and learning processes at a sectorial level. It analyses and compares concretely the processes of knowledge production, dissemination and use in the engineering, the information and communication technology, the health and the education sectors.

Governments urgently need better knowledge bases for determining educational policy and practice in an increasingly interconnected world. The rate, quality and success in knowledge creation, mediation and application are relatively low in the education sector compared with other sectors. Unlike sectors such as medicine and engineering, education has not yet seen continuous and clear improvements due to technical and organisational advances. The book makes a strong plea for strengthening the knowledge management at every level of the education system.

Knowledge and Skills for Life assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education (15-year-olds) have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in society.  It presents evidence on student performance in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy, reveals factors that influence the development of these skills at home and at school, and examines what the implications are for policy development.

The report shows considerable variation in levels of knowledge and skills between students, schools and countries. The extent to which the socio-economic background of students and schools affects student performance varies.  Some countries have managed to mitigate the influence of social background and some have done that while achieving a high overall mean performance.

A Winner of the 2001 Awards for Notable Government Documents conferred by the American Library Association/Library Journal

Vzdelávanie a starostlivosť v ranom detstve (VSRD) môžu byť prínosné v širokej škále aspektov – pre deti, ich rodičov aj spoločnosť ako takú. Všetky tieto prínosy však závisia od kvality VSRD. Širšie sprístupnenie služieb bez ohľadu na kvalitu neprinesie z pohľadu dlhodobého zvýšenia produktivity práce nič dobré deťom ani spoločnosti.

Toto vydanie správ špecifických pre jednotlivé krajiny sa zameriava na otázky súvisiace s kvalitou. Každá správa sa zaoberá konkrétnou témou, ktorú si zvolila samotná skúmaná krajina. Správy poukazujú na silné stránky a upozorňujú na oblasti, na ktoré by sa mali zamerať úvahy o iniciatívach v rámci súčasných politík.