How effective are school systems at providing young people with a solid foundation in the knowledge and skills that will equip them for life and learning beyond school? The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assesses student knowledge and skills at age 15, i.e. toward the end of compulsory education. The PISA 2009 survey focused on reading, including students’ attitudes towards reading; for the first time, PISA also assessed the ability of students to read, understand and use digital texts.

Since the PISA surveys have now been conducted for a decade, it is not only possible to see not just where countries stand in terms of student performance but also how learning outcomes have changed since the assessments were first administered. Every three years, PISA measures student knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science, covering each of these areas once as a major focus and twice as a minor area across a nine-year cycle. The 2009 round marks the first time that reading has been reassessed in detail.

Being interested in and enjoying a particular subject affects both the degree and the continuity of engagement in learning and the depth of understanding achieved, an effect that research has shown to operate largely independently of students’ motivation to learn. Students who enjoy reading, and therefore make it a regular part of their lives, build their reading skills through practice.

As national economies become more interconnected, governments and individuals are looking to higher education to broaden students’ horizons. It is through the pursuit of high level studies in countries other than their own that students may expand their knowledge of other cultures and languages, and to better equip themselves in an increasingly globalised labour market. Some countries, particularly in the European Union, have established policies and schemes that promote such mobility to foster intercultural contacts and help build social networks.

A well-educated and well-trained population is essential for the social and economic well-being of countries. Education plays a key role in providing individuals with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to participate effectively in society and in the economy. It also contributes to the expansion of scientific and cultural knowledge. Educational attainment is a commonly used proxy for the stock of “human capital”, i.e. the skills available in the population and the labour force.

The economic benefits of education flow not just to individuals but also to governments through additional tax receipts as people enter the labour market. These public returns, which take into account the fact that providing education is also a cost to governments, offer an additional perspective on the overall returns to education. Of course, they must be understood in the wider context of the benefits that economies and societies gain from increasing levels of education. From a policy perspective, awareness of economic incentives is crucial to understanding how individuals move through the education system. In shaping policies, it is important to consider the balance between private and public returns.

Policy makers must balance the importance of improving the quality of educational services with the desirability of expanding access to educational opportunities, specifically at the tertiary level. In many OECD countries the expansion of enrolments, particularly in tertiary education, has not been paralleled by similar rises in educational expenditures. In primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education, enrolments are stable but expenditure has increased more than at the tertiary level.

Educational institutions in OECD countries are mainly publicly funded, although there are substantial and growing levels of private funding at the tertiary level. At this level, the contribution to the costs of education by individuals and other private entities is more and more considered an effective way to ensure funding is available to students regardless of their economic backgrounds.

Expenditure on education is an investment that can foster economic growth, enhance productivity, contribute to personal and social development and reduce social inequality. The proportion of total financial resources devoted to education is one of the key choices made by governments, enterprises, students and their families.