The knowledge society requires not only a higher level of basic education than in the past, but also new kinds of expertise and reliable means to measure them, OECD education ministers agreed at a two-day meeting in Paris in April.

They urged the OECD to develop more educational indicators to measure such elementsas how prepared young people are for adult life and progress in achieving the goal of lifelong learning. One key issue is the quality of teaching and the status of the teaching profession.

“We have to be very careful not to overload teachers with expectations”, and to ensure that they too “have better opportunities for lifelong learning”, German Education Minister Edelgard Bulmahn, who chaired the meeting, told a news conference.

• Read the final statement from the ministerial meeting on the education website at: http://www.oecd.org/els/education/

©OECD Observer No 226/227, Summer 2001