The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is promoting increased privatization instead of greater access to public education in its annual report released last month, says the largest international organization representing educators.
The OECD’s 450-page report,
Education at a Glance 2007", examines internationally-comparable indicators of education.
“The OECD consistently fails to call for greater public investment in education, but this year’s report clearly calls for increasing privatization of funding for tertiary education,” Fred van Leeuwen, general secretary of Education International, said in a statement issued Sept. 19.
“Financing higher education through general taxation is the most equitable way of ensuring education as a social good in democratic societies.”
Van Leeuwen cautioned against following Australia’s move to income-contingent student loans, which the OECD cited as a successful example of private financing.
“Income-contingent loans entrench regressive tuition fees and place a disproportionate burden on students from lower-income households,” he said.
EI points out that OECD indicators show economic and social benefits for individuals and countries that invest in education. Countries with well-funded education systems tend to have the most successful economies and the highest levels of student performance.
Canada lacks data
The OECD’s annual assessment has little to say about how Canada’s education system fares on the world stage because Canada was unable to report data for 57 of the 96 indicators used for the report.
Canada failed to provide information on who participates in post-secondary education or on graduation or dropout rates and supplied data for only two of 28 indicators on public and private investment in post-secondary education.
The Canadian Council on Learning attributes the data shortfall to Canada’s failure to adequately track key information. Canada spent $34 billion on post-secondary education during 2007, the council said, but lacks the data needed for a proper evaluation of performance in this area.
“We can’t conduct the analysis — and neither can the OECD — because Canada can’t supply even the most basic information,” council president Paul Cappon said.
Canada ranks last among the OECD member and partner countries when it comes to the amount of post-secondary education information provided for the annual survey, behind countries as varied as the United States, Luxembourg, Chile and Croatia, the council said.
The council said without immediate action to fix the information deficit, it’s evident Canada will not be equipped to make the right decisions and investments in post-secondary education.
“Post-secondary education is vital to Canada’s future prosperity and social cohesion,” Cappon said. “If we can’t assess our performance in comparison to other countries, Canada risks falling behind.”