The challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution have become defining issues of our time. These crises are global in scope, affecting all regions of the planet, with impacts felt across all sectors of society. Facing these daunting challenges requires rethinking how we engage with the environment and, more deeply, how human systems in general operate. Education is at the heart of this transformative effort. It enables individuals to grasp the complexities of environmental systems, understand the interconnectedness of ecological, social, and economic factors, and ultimately take informed and responsible action. This report takes a strategic life-span perspective on education and skills policies for a sustainable future, spanning from primary schooling to higher education and lifelong learning. Drawing on multi-disciplinary insights and examples of policies and practices from around the world, it provides actionable insights and recommendations on the role that education and training systems can play in fostering transformative change and building resilient societies. These recommendations focus on (1) empowering citizens and communities for action, (2) fostering informed consumption and lifestyle choices, and (3) equipping individuals with the skills needed for changing labour markets in response to the greening of economies and societies.

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The OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 report on mathematics curriculum presents first-of-its-kind comparative data on how countries are adapting curricula to meet the demands of the 21st century. The project’s unique data illustrate a 25-year evolution of mathematics curricula in various countries, looking at content coverage and the integration of essential 21st-century skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, and data literacy. The findings show how mathematics as a school discipline – a traditionally “hard-to-change” subject given its foundational and hierarchical nature – is undergoing transformation to meet societal and technological demands. Using a collaborative “co-creation” approach, the report synthesises inputs from a wide range of stakeholders including policy makers, academic experts, school leaders, teachers, NGOs, social partners and, most importantly, students. This broad, inclusive perspective enriches the report with insights on implementation gaps, students’ voice, and promising examples on how to embed future-oriented competencies alongside rigorous content into mathematics curriculum.

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The countries of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) – an initiative between the Member States of the European Union and Eastern European and South Caucasus countries – are navigating significant challenges while striving for sustainable economic growth and social cohesion. Education plays a crucial role in unlocking the potential of digitalisation and the green transition, offering pathways for economic diversification and innovation. This report, developed in co-operation with the European Commission and UNICEF, analyses PISA data for the EaP countries and economies that participated in PISA 2022: Baku (Azerbaijan), Georgia, Moldova, and Ukrainian regions. It identifies the strengths and challenges within these education systems and provides recommendations on how to build more resilient, equitable, and high-performing systems to support economic and social goals. This report will be of particular interest to policymakers and stakeholders dedicated to advancing education across the Eastern Partnership region.

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The 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), provides a comprehensive overview of adults' literacy, numeracy, and adaptive problem solving skills – skills that are fundamental for personal, economic, and societal development. These key information-processing skills provide the foundation for access to employment, higher wages and continuous learning, while enabling individuals to navigate the complexities of their personal and civic lives. A total of 31 countries and economies, mostly OECD members, participated in the 2023 survey. As 27 of these countries also participated in the previous cycle of the Survey of Adult Skills, the data provide valuable insights into how literacy and numeracy skills have evolved over the past decade.
Do Adults Have the Skills They Need to Thrive in a Changing World?: Survey of Adult Skills 2023 presents the state of adult skills and their evolution over the last decade and explores the relationship between these skills and economic and social outcomes. It highlights the importance of developing and maintaining skills in today's dynamic world. This report's Reader’s Companion, which describes the design and methodology of the survey and its relationship to other international skills assessments conducted by the OECD, is also available.

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Teacher shortages have intensified across several OECD countries, making this an urgent priority for education systems. Between 2015 and 2022, the share of students whose principals reported shortages rose from 29% to 46.7% on average across the OECD. Simultaneously, rapid technological advances, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and broader socio-economic shifts, increase the need to support teachers in delivering quality education in evolving contexts. Addressing both the number of teachers and ensuring they possess the skills to meet new educational needs is essential for student success. This report presents a policy roadmap to help education systems balance the supply and demand for quality teaching in these changing times. Drawing on responses from 33 education systems to the Education Policy Outlook National Survey for Comparative Analysis, as well as additional evidence, the report outlines current challenges and key factors in their interplay. It also explores policy responses to attract, retain, and develop teachers, enhancing their teaching practices and professional learning. In doing so, the report aims to support countries in advancing the goals set by the 2022 OECD Declaration on Building Equitable Societies Through Education. This report is part of the Education Policy Outlook series – the OECD’s analytical observatory of education policy.

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The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) does more than assess what students know. PISA examines how they use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges, offering invaluable insights into both the quality and equity of education worldwide. In this final volume of the PISA 2022 initial report, Volume V: Learning Strategies and Attitudes for Life takes a deep dive into one of the most critical aspects of modern education: students' readiness for lifelong learning. This volume explores how education systems prepare students to navigate and thrive in an unpredictable future, focusing on their learning strategies, motivation and self-beliefs. It also delves into the role of socio-economic background, gender and the support students receive from parents and teachers in shaping their readiness for sustained lifelong learning. As education evolves to meet the challenges of tomorrow, this volume provides crucial insights for educators and policy makers who want to foster resilient, self-directed learners who are ready to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

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Engagement and performance in mathematics at the upper secondary level have been the concern of successive governments in England. This report was commissioned as part of the country's policy reflections for transforming how maths is viewed and experienced in England. The report explores outcomes such as the share of students studying maths and performance across countries, and how education systems internationally deliver mathematics in upper secondary. It also examines factors shaping maths education, including the expectations set by curricula, student pathways, cultural perceptions, and the needs of the labour market and higher education.

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The OECD’s Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) 2023 represents the largest global initiative to gather comparable data on the development of social and emotional skills - including creativity, empathy, achievement motivation, responsibility and collaboration skills - among 10- and 15-year-old students. The report - Nurturing Social and Emotional Learning Across the Globe - reveals striking disparities both within and between participating countries and subnational entities in how these critical skills are fostered in schools, homes and society. These findings offer insights into the relationship between educational environments and student outcomes, highlighting the urgent need for improvements. Key recommendations focus on enhancing school policies and practices (e.g. teachers’ feedback, training, preparedness and attitudes; teaching of these skills across subjects offline, digitally and remotely; and extra-curricular activities), improving school climates (e.g. student belonging; relationships; and handling of bullying and stress), and advancing gender equality (e.g. challenging stereotypes; and ensuring equitable access to careers and parental support for skill development). This report serves as a vital resource for policymakers and practitioners seeking to improve social-emotional learning worldwide.

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Education at a Glance is the authoritative source for information on the state of education around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and a number of accession and partner countries. More than 100 charts and tables in this publication – as well as links to much more available on the educational database – provide key information on the output of educational institutions; the impact of learning across countries; access, participation and progression in education; the financial resources invested in education; and teachers, the learning environment and the organisation of schools.
The 2024 edition focuses on equity, investigating how progress through education and the associated learning and labour market outcomes are impacted by dimensions such as gender, socio-economic status, country of birth and regional location. A specific chapter is dedicated to the Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education, providing an assessment of where OECD, accession and partner countries stand in providing equal access to quality education at all levels.

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For the first time, the OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 project conducted comprehensive curriculum analyses through the co-creation of new knowledge with a wide range of stakeholders including policy makers, academic experts, school leaders, teachers, NGOs, social partners and, most importantly, students. This report is one of six in a series presenting the first-ever comparative data on curriculum at the content level. It summarises existing literature, explores trends in curriculum adaptation, addresses challenges and strategies for effective implementation and offers policy insights drawn from real-world experiences of curriculum reforms.

This report explores curriculum flexibility and autonomy in global education systems, assessing how curricula adapt to diverse educational needs and contexts. It maps the stakeholders who influence decision-making on curriculum flexibility and discusses dilemmas faced by policymakers and practitioners between curriculum prescription and autonomy. Drawing on international examples, it illustrates how flexible curricula can enhance teaching effectiveness and inclusivity. It emphasises key strategies such as enhanced teacher training and collaborative policymaking, necessary for flexible curricula to meet educational needs. It also identifies critical factors, such as clear goals, accountability mechanisms, and societal support, which are crucial for successful curriculum implementation.

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The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students around the world know and can do. This volume – Volume III, Creative Minds, Creative Schools – is one of five volumes presenting the results of the eighth round of the PISA assessment. For the first time, in 2022, PISA assessed students’ capacity to engage in creative thinking in 64 countries and economies, defined as students’ capacity to produce original and diverse ideas. This volume describes student performance in creative thinking in different contexts and how creative thinking performance and attitudes vary across and within countries and economies. It examines differences in performance by student characteristics, including gender and socio-economic status, as well as school-characteristics. The volume also offers an insight into school leader and teacher attitudes towards creative thinking, how opportunities for students to engage in creative thinking vary across schools, and how these factors are associated with student outcomes.

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Social and Emotional Skills for Better Lives presents results from the OECD’s Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) 2023. SSES is the largest international effort to collect data on these skills among 10- and 15-year-old students.The report explores how the following skills differ by socio-demographic groups and how they relate to key life outcomes: task performance skills (persistence, responsibility, self-control and achievement motivation); emotional regulation skills (stress-resistance, emotional control and optimism); engaging with others skills (assertiveness, sociability and energy); open-mindedness skills (curiosity, creativity and tolerance); and collaboration skills (empathy and trust).

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This policy brief brings together key reflections from the Policy Dialogues in Focus: International Insights for Digital Education Reform in Brazil. This seminar series from the Education Policy Outlook offered federal and subnational policy makers, civil society actors and researchers in Brazil the opportunity to learn from the experiences of six peer education systems (New South Wales (Australia), Chile, Colombia, Ireland, Korea and Mexico). The seminars also provided insights into other relevant international comparative and empirical work from the OECD. The policy brief builds on the main reflections and insights shared by presenters and participants in the seminars, covering four key topics: digital education governance, infrastructure and resources, capacity building and digital learning resources. The brief proposes pointers for policy makers in Brazil to consider when pursuing the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of digital education reforms.

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This document brings together previous international evidence collected by the OECD on the topics of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and the education policy context of Brazil to support policy dialogue in Brazil on the reform of ECEC in 2024. This document looks into the following areas: 1) Why ECEC matters for stronger social and economic outcomes in Brazil, 2) How some OECD education systems are supporting access to and quality of ECEC, and 3) Which policy directions taken by some OECD countries can inform Brazil’s efforts to strengthen access and quality of ECEC?

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The Scottish Government and the OECD co-facilitated an international peer learning event in May 2023 to explore ways and approaches for clarifying the roles and responsibilities of school improvement support provided at different levels of the education system. The event brought together Scottish stakeholders and international experts from Ireland, Norway and Wales (United Kingdom) to collectively reflect on the country's school improvement system. This report, written between May and September 2023, captures and summarises the peer learning event discussions and proposes policy options to help advance Scotland's education reform agenda. This report will be valuable not only for Scotland, but also to the many countries that are looking to strengthen their school improvement support systems.

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