Expanding PISA’s circle of influence (part two)

By Barbara Ischinger, Director, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, Michael Ward, Senior Policy Analyst, PISA for Development and Alejandro Gomez Palma, Policy Analyst, PISA for Development. In our previous blog about PISA for Development, we were pleased to announce Ecuador’s agreement to participate in this new pilot project. We’ve just returned from the Zambian capital of Lusaka and are delighted to report that Zambia has also agreed to participate – the first sub-Saharan African nation ever to take part in any PISA survey.
You might well ask: how can we compare the performance of students in highly developed countries – such as Japan and Germany – with that of students in low- and middle-income countries in Africa? And how do we assess the competencies of the tens of millions of 15-year-olds in developing countries who aren’t enrolled in school? These were precisely some of the challenges we put to ourselves when the idea of PISA for Development emerged from discussions with countries and OECD partners. Read more...