Universal basic skills: what countries stand to gain

While access to schooling has expanded around the world, many countries have not realised the hoped-for improvements in economic and social wellbeing. Access to education by itself is an incomplete goal for development; many students leave the education system without basic proficiency in literacy and numeracy. As the world coalesces around new sustainable development targets towards 2030, the focus in education is shifting towards access and quality. Using projections based on data from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other international student assessments, this report offers a glimpse of the economic and social benefits that all countries, regardless of their national wealth, stand to gain if they ensure that every child not only has access to education but, through that education, acquires at least the baseline level of skills needed to participate fully in society.

Edited excerpt from publisher's website.

The contents are as follow: The case for promoting universal basic skills; Relationship between skills and economic growth; The goal: every young person acquires basic skills; Distance from the goal of basic skills for all; Economic impacts of achieving the basic skills goal by 2030; Sharing the benefits of universal basic skills; What achieving universal basic skills means for the economy and for education; Annexes - Review of knowledge capital and growth; Transforming performance in TIMSS onto the PISA scale; Augmented neoclassical results; Distribution of skills when goal of universal basic skills is achieved; Sample of PISA questions requiring Level 1 skills. Show less