New Zealand ‘Top In World’ For Preparing Students For Future
New Zealand has been identified as the top country when it comes to preparing students for the future in a “major study that assesses the “effectiveness” of education systems,” writes Ellie Bothwell in an article for Times Higher Education.
“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.”
“New Zealand earned full marks for its curriculum framework for future skills, the effectiveness of its policy implementation system, teacher education, government education expenditure, career counselling in schools, collaboration between universities and industry, and cultural diversity and tolerance, according to the report.”
“The reasons behind this success are twofold. 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 be globally competitive,” according to 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.”
“The report covers education between ages 15 and 24 and concentrates on “inputs” such as government expenditure on post-secondary education, the quality of teacher education (…), as opposed to “outputs” such as test scores, in order to judge how students are being readied to master “interpersonal, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, and navigate an increasingly digital and automated world,” as reported in the article.
These are the top ten countries preparing students for the future:
- New Zealand
- Canada
- Finland
- Switzerland
- Singapore
- UK
- Japan
- Australia
- Netherlands
- Germany
Article Source: Times Higher Education, Ellie Bothwell, September 19, 2017
Image Source: Pixabay
