Policymaking has always been a matter of making choices, managing trade-offs and balancing multiple goals and priorities to make complex budgetary decisions. Yet, the past few years have seen a rising number of priorities facing policymakers, hence mounting pressure to enhance the efficiency of public spending. There is a strong case for public investment in high-quality education as it leads to a range of economic outcomes as well as broader social outcomes for both individuals and society. But while high-quality education will continue to enable individuals and societies to thrive and recover from disruptions, education ministries will need to rethink the way they invest in education to ensure that education systems deliver greater value for money. Following an introduction laying out the context, this publication first takes stock of the wealth of economic returns and broader social outcomes derived from high-quality education, making the case for continued public investment. It then turns to the examination of smart ways of investing in education and examines key policy levers that can help enhance value for money: governing and distributing school funding to make the most of education investments; achieving educational equity alongside greater efficiency; and planning, monitoring and evaluating the efficient use of school funding.

Policymaking has always been a matter of making choices, managing trade-offs and balancing multiple goals and priorities to make complex budgetary decisions. Yet, the past few years have seen a rising number of priorities facing policymakers, hence mounting pressure to enhance the efficiency of public spending.

Investment in education technology has surged worldwide over the past decade and digital education technologies are now a key resource for OECD education and training systems. If used effectively, they promise to transform teaching and learning practices, to reduce learning inequalities and to create more inclusive and efficient education systems.

This is one of five volumes that present the results of the eighth round of assessment, PISA 2022 – which was conducted during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Volume II, Learning During – and From – Disruption, focuses on resilience in education and analyses its relevance for education systems, schools and students.

After a strong recovery from the pandemic, the New Zealand economy has slowed, with higher interest rates weighing on housing construction, and inflation undermining purchasing power and consumption. Monetary policy has tightened significantly since late 2021 and proved efficient at reining in inflation. Better control of government spending is needed to keep fiscal consolidation on track in the short run and restore fiscal space for ageing-related expenditures and the green transition in the long run. New Zealand also faces an investment gap in addressing the needs of a rapidly growing population. Improving competition policies and streamlining the regulatory environment would help revive productivity growth and lift living standards in the long run. As highlighted by the recent OECD PISA study, achievement in school education has declined markedly. Inequality remains high and attendance has dropped. There is an urgent need to improve the curriculum, reform teacher education and strengthen support to teachers and schools to deliver better education outcomes. Adapting to climate change will require maintaining high insurance coverage for climate-related losses as well as changes to land-use planning and a comprehensive long-run energy strategy. The green transition needs a more rigorous cost-benefit assessment of emission reduction options. Special features: Competition, School Education, Climate Change

Governments and education policy makers are increasingly concerned with equity and inclusion in education due to several major global trends such as demographic shifts, migration and refugee crises, rising inequalities, and climate change. These developments have contributed to increasing diversity within national populations and flagged some concerns around the ability of education systems to be equitable and inclusive of all students.

Norway’s economy is slowing as inflation and higher interest rates weigh on consumption and investment. The labour market is tight and wage growth robust, while labour shortages and job mismatches are high and rising. Inflation is falling but still way above the target of 2%. The fiscal stance is expansionary. It should become contractionary to support monetary policy. While Norway is one of the OECD’s most productive countries, productivity growth over the past decade has been weak. Making skills more relevant, notably by strengthening vocational education and training, could help raise productivity and ease tight labour markets. Higher and broader taxation of greenhouse gas emissions and investing in lower‐cost emission cuts would help achieve emission reductions more efficiently. Public spending as a share of GDP is the highest in the OECD, which brings important benefits in the form of high-quality public services. However, oil revenues are set to decline, and ageing costs to rise, foreshadowing strains on public finances in the future. Norway could benefit from applying a medium-term expenditure framework, introducing a spending rule, and establishing a full-fledged fiscal council. Reforming the very generous sickness and disability scheme could help reduce spending pressures and increase employment. Regional policy should become more cost-conscious. Infrastructure investment is very high, and imposing a minimum benefit-cost ratio on individual projects and strengthening ex-post evaluations could help improve its effectiveness. SPECIAL FEATURE: RAISING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC SPENDING

France has faced two significant, successive shocks: the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in inflation. Emergency government measures were decisive in protecting business, jobs and purchasing power, but at a high fiscal cost. Efforts to reduce public spending will be key to lower government debt. Lifting productivity growth hinges on a wider diffusion of digital technologies, reduced regulatory barriers and stronger innovation.

Global education systems face an array of huge challenges, including question marks over how to remain relevant in a fast-changing world. This report Teaching for the Future: Global Engagement, Sustainability and Digital Skills outlines the challenges and key trends for teaching and schools, and sets out ambitious proposals to improve education standards to ensure learning caters to the needs of all students regardless of background.

Every year, the World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) features a topic of central importance to global development. The 2018 WDR—LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise—is the first ever devoted entirely to education. And the time is right: education has long been critical to human welfare, but it is even more so in a time of rapid economic and social change. The best way to equip children and youth for the future is to make their learning the center of all efforts to promote education. The 2018 WDR explores four main themes: First, education’s promise: education is a powerful instrument for eradicating poverty and promoting shared prosperity, but fulfilling its potential requires better policies—both within and outside the education system. Second, the need to shine a light on learning: despite gains in access to education, recent learning assessments reveal that many young people around the world, especially those who are poor or marginalized, are leaving school unequipped with even the foundational skills they need for life. At the same time, internationally comparable learning assessments show that skills in many middle-income countries lag far behind what those countries aspire to. And too often these shortcomings are hidden—so as a first step to tackling this learning crisis, it is essential to shine a light on it by assessing student learning better. Third, how to make schools work for all learners: research on areas such as brain science, pedagogical innovations, and school management has identified interventions that promote learning by ensuring that learners are prepared, teachers are both skilled and motivated, and other inputs support the teacher-learner relationship. Fourth, how to make systems work for learning: achieving learning throughout an education system requires more than just scaling up effective interventions. Countries must also overcome technical and political barriers by deploying salient metrics for mobilizing actors and tracking progress, building coalitions for learning, and taking an adaptive approach to reform.