OECD report 2010, education at a glance

Today the annual OECD report appeared, providing us with the current state of affairs in education in all the OECD countries. Pages and pages of numbers and statistics to study and analyse who participates in education, what is spent on it, how education systems operate and what results are achieved. Interesting, but time consuming, so I just had a look at some of the summaries available and picked a selection of conclusions from the report.
For starters, the article on the OECD site attracts anyone's attention with the heading: "Governments should expand tertiary studies to boost jobs and tax revenues" Sounds to me as a most welcome piece of advice. With demand for tertiary courses rising, public resources invested in university education also pay off handsomely by bringing in additional tax revenues. It goes on to say that besides higher tax revenues, social contributions from people with university degrees also make tertiary education a good long-term investment.
Also, adults with higher educational attainment are more likely to participate in formal and/or non-formal education than adults with lower attainment. On average for the OECD, individuals with tertiary education have an advantage in the involvement in educational activities – they are almost three times more likely to be involved in educational activities than those with low levels of education.
Another interesting development is this: "As more and more people look beyond their home countries’ borders for university education, both academic and commercial benefits accrue from attracting foreign students. In 2008, the latest year for which complete figures are available, over 3.3 million tertiary students were enrolled outside their country of citizenship, a 10.7% increase on the previous year. So student mobility is still on the rise !

Sadly, the report also indicates that women in most countries and at most education levels still earn much less than men, potentially discouraging women from making full use of the skills they have learned and hampering economic growth. On average in OECD countries, a woman aged between 35 and 44 with upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education can expect to earn 76% of male earnings. This ratio falls to 74% for those who have not completed an upper secondary education and to 71% for those who have completed a tertiary education. Obviously, we still have a long way to go to achieving equity regarding salaries. I wonder to what extent education can contribute to solving that issue.