Governments are paying increasing attention to international comparisons as they search for effective policies that enhance individuals’ social and economic prospects, provide incentives for greater efficiency in schooling, and help to mobilise resources to meet rising demands. As part of its response, the OECD Directorate for Education devotes a major effort to the development and analysis of the quantitative, internationally comparable indicators that it publishes annually in Education at a Glance. These indicators enable educational policy makers and practitioners alike to see their education systems in the light of other countries’ performances and, together with OECD’s country policy reviews, are designed to support and review the efforts that governments are making towards policy reform.

Since its early days, the OECD has emphasised the role of education and human capital in driving economic and social development; and in the half century since its founding, the pool of human capital in its member countries has developed dramatically. Access to education has expanded to the extent that the majority of people in OECD countries is now enrolled in education beyond basic, compulsory schooling. At the same time, countries have transformed the ways they look at educational outcomes, moving beyond a simplistic “more is better” perspective that simply measures investment and participation in education to one that encompasses the quality of the competencies that students ultimately acquire. In an increasingly global economy, in which the benchmark for educational success is no longer improvement by national standards alone, but the best performing education systems internationally, the role of the OECD has become central, providing indicators of educational performance that not only evaluate but also help shape public policy.

Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2011 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, on how education and learning systems operate and evolve, and on the returns to educational investments. The indicators are organised thematically, and each is accompanied by information on the policy context and the 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 educational 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. However, children below the age of 3 are only included if they participate in programmes that typically cater to children who are at least 3 years old. Vocational and technical training in the workplace, with the exception of combined school- and work-based programmes that are explicitly deemed to be parts of the education system, is not included in the basic education expenditure and enrolment data.