Governments are increasingly looking to international comparisons of education opportunities and outcomes as they develop policies to enhance individuals’ social and economic prospects, provide incentives for greater efficiency in schooling, and help to mobilise resources to meet rising demands. The OECD Directorate for Education and Skills contributes to these efforts by developing and analysing the quantitative, internationally comparable indicators that it publishes annually in Education at a Glance. Together with OECD country policy reviews, these indicators can be used to assist governments in building more effective and equitable education systems.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit our health, economic, and social sectors hard. It has also exposed and highlighted some systemic weaknesses hampering genuine social mobility. Equality of opportunity is a key ingredient for a strong and cohesive democratic society. Unlike policies that address the consequences, education can tackle the sources of inequality of opportunity, by creating a more level playing field for people of all ages to acquire the skills that power better jobs and better lives.

Education at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators offers a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators that reflect a consensus among professionals on how to measure the current state of education internationally. The indicators provide information on the human and financial resources invested in education, how education and learning systems operate and evolve, and the returns to investments in education. They are organised thematically, each accompanied by information on the policy context and interpretation of the data.

Although a lack of data still limits the scope of the indicators in many countries, the coverage extends, in principle, to the entire national education system (within the national territory), regardless of who owns or sponsors the institutions concerned and regardless of how education is delivered. With one exception (described below), all types of students and all age groups are included: children (including students with special needs), adults, nationals, foreigners and students in open-distance learning, in special education programmes or in education programmes organised by ministries other than the ministry of education, provided that the main aim of the programme is to broaden or deepen an individual’s knowledge. Vocational and technical training in the workplace is not included in the basic education expenditure and enrolment data, with the exception of combined school- and work-based programmes that are explicitly deemed to be part of the education system.

An upper secondary degree remains the basic level of education expected of young adults to contribute effectively to society. However, one in five adults across the OECD has not attained upper secondary education and in some countries, a significant share of children leave school early. In 2019, at least 10% of school-aged youth were not in school in about a quarter of OECD countries. Among the factors influencing education performance, socio-economic status has a greater impact on the literacy skills of 15-year-olds than gender or country of origin. Socio-economic status also tends to influence the programme orientation students pursue, as students without a tertiary-educated parent, a proxy for socio-economic status, are more likely to enrol in upper secondary vocational programmes than in general programmes. Those without upper secondary education face disadvantages in the labour market. In 2020, the unemployment rate of young adults that had not completed upper secondary education was almost twice as high as those with higher qualifications. While unemployment increased by 1-2 percentage points between 2019 and 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, there is no clear pattern across adults with different educational attainment levels. Lifelong learning has emerged more than ever as critical for adults to upskill and reskill in a changing world. Yet, more than half of adults did not participate in adult learning in 2016, and the pandemic further reduced opportunities to do so.

SDG 4 and its associated targets set an ambitious agenda that encompasses access, participation, quality and equity in education. The analysis below builds on selected SDG 4 indicators in order to investigate equity in access to education and in learning outcomes.