New Zealand and Canada have been singled out as countries that best prepare students for the future, in a major study assessing the “effectiveness” of education systems. The Worldwide Educating for the Future Index, produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the Yidan Prize Foundation, evaluates education systems in 35 economies across 16 indicators, which cover the education policy environment, teaching environment and socio-economic environment.

The report, which covers students between the 15-24 years age group, concentrates on “inputs” such as government expenditure on post-secondary education, the quality of teacher education, cultural diversity and tolerance, as opposed to “outputs” such as test scores, to judge how students are being readied to master “interpersonal, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, and navigate an increasingly digital and automated world”.

When all three environments are considered, small and rich countries generally come out top; the five highest ranked are New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Switzerland and Singapore. The UK is sixth overall, while the US is 12th. New Zealand also comes top in the teaching environment category, which accounts for 50 percent of the overall score.

“The reasons behind this success are two fold. Firstly, New Zealand views educating for future skills as a broadly-agreed strategic imperative: it is a small and remote country, with the vigilance that comes with knowing that it has little choice but to become globally competitive,” says the study. “Secondly, it has a systematic government-led approach to making its education system fit for purpose, across technology, teaching, curriculum and collaboration with industry.”

Singapore comes top when countries are assessed only on their education policy environment, while Finland takes first place for socio-economic environment. But more than half of the economies in the index are failing to invest in or effectively assess skills needed for the future, says the study. 
 

(Excerpted and adapted from The Economist and Times Higher Education)