Abstract
AbstractThis article analyses the contribution of post‐compulsory education and training systems to the development of literacy and numeracy skills across OECD countries. While there is extensive cross‐country comparative research on the effects of primary and lower secondary education systems on aggregate skills levels, there has been little comparative analysis of system effects after the end of lower secondary education. This article uses a quasi‐cohort analysis of the tested literacy and numeracy skills of 15‐year‐olds in PISA 2000 and 27‐year‐olds in the 2011 OECD Survey of Adult Skills (SAS) to estimate the gains in different countries in mean levels of competence in literacy and numeracy. We found that Nordic countries (Norway and Sweden) with comprehensive upper secondary education and training systems and German‐speaking countries (Austria and Germany) with dual systems of apprenticeship were particular effective, whilst countries with mixed systems (England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Spain) showed a relative decline in both literacy and numeracy. The education system characteristics that account for these differences are (a) the inclusiveness – as proxied by high rates of participation at 17/18 and low social gradients of level 3 completion; (b) the esteem of vocational programmes; and (c) curriculum standardisation with regard to the study of maths and the national language.
Highlights
This article analyses the contribution of post-compulsory education and training systems1 to the development of literacy and numeracy skills across OECD countries
Why do some types of upper secondary education and training system improve their scores in literacy and numeracy more than others? The following part of our analysis looks at the effects of different individual system characteristics
Our analysis suggests that the type of post-compulsory education and training systems in different countries does have an effect on the improvement in the mean literacy and numeracy competence of young people between 15 and 27 years of age
Summary
This article analyses the contribution of post-compulsory education and training systems to the development of literacy and numeracy skills across OECD countries. There is a considerable body of cross-country comparative research on the effects of primary and lower secondary education systems on aggregate skills levels but little comparative Because of the different designs of the PISA and SAS tests we were unable to compare skills levels at different ages in absolute terms so the analysis here is based on comparing the relative skills gain across countries It seeks to explain the variations with reference to the effects of different types and characteristics of post-compulsory education and training systems. Particular attention is paid to the effects of institutional integration and curriculum standardisation across programmes and to the relative esteem of academic and vocational tracks
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