Highlights from Education at a Glance 2008 is a new companion publication to the OECD’s flagship compendium of education statistics, Education at a Glance. It provides easily accessible data on key topics in education today, including:

·         Education levels and student numbers: How far have adults studied, and what access do young people have to education?

·         The economic benefits of education: How does education affect people’s job prospects and what is its impact on incomes? 

·         Paying for education: What share of public spending goes on education, and what is the role of private spending?

·         The school environment: How many hours do teachers work and how does class size vary?

·         PISA: A special section introduces findings from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which examines the abilities of 15-year-old students in 57 countries and territories.

Each indicator is presented on a two-page spread. The left-hand page explains the significance of the indicator, discusses the main findings, examines key trends and provides readers with a roadmap for finding out more in the OECD’s education databases and in other OECD education publications. The right-hand page contains clearly presented charts and tables, accompanied by dynamic hyperlinks (StatLinks) that direct readers to the corresponding data in Excel™ format.

Highlights from Education at a Glance 2008 is an ideal introduction to the OECD’s unrivalled collection of internationally comparable data on education and learning.