global perspectives There are two basic reasons for expecting to find links between quality of education and competitive advantage. A general reason is that living standards have risen so much over the past centuries due to education. The rise of the middle class across the Western world after, but even during, the Industrial Revolution has proven that education is needed for people to contribute to scientific advance as well as to benefit from it. The Industrial Revolution transformed the Western countries into technologically advanced societies. A general lesson learned from this era is that in technologically advanced societies, the groups of populations that do not have access to quality education will find it difficult to prosper or even functionand this affects the competitive advantage of a country. Asia seems to hold tight to this general idea as many Asian countries have invested in important reforms to improve the quality of education. The effects are now visible. The current size of the Asian middle class is at 500 million and is set to grow to 1.75 billion by 2020. The future is so bright because according to the latest PISA results, adolescent students seem to be doing great in math and other subjects, thanks to improved education. The second reason is one that I wanted to mention but will not elaborate on too much: many economic studies indicate that people with education can earn more than people without it. If this is true of people, can this be true of countries? It is quite likely that at least the level of output per hour worked in a country depends on the access to quality education as well as the educational attainment of the population. Countries can look at spending on quality education as delivering returns similar to other types of spending, for example on fixed capital. Therefore, investing in human capital is the counterpart to investing in fixed capital – ultimately, it is an investment decision. I always urge companies and countries to take care of their talent because skilled workers are a key competitive advantage and factor in economic prosperity. In fact, the PISA report revealed a correlation between spending on education and strong performance in the tests, especially in math. Therefore, kids today need better access to quality education because the future competitive advantage of a country will be on their shoulders. The latest PISA survey provides some interesting insights on what young students know and what they can do with what they have learned. Just a reminder, PISA is The Programme for International Student Assessment – a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and nonmember nations of 15-year-old students’ performance in mathematics, science, and reading. For the most recent PISA survey, OECD used data collected in 2012 after assessing
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510 000 students between the ages of 15 and 16, in 65 countries. That is, 65 educational systems representing 80 percent of the global economy. Students in Asian countries scored high in the PISA survey before, but in 2012 they made even more headway in the global achievement exams. Students in East Asian countries took seven of the top ten places. Shanghai-China, Singapore, Hong Kong-China, Taiwan, South Korea, Macau-China and Japan were amongst the top performing countries and economies according to the OECD report. Even countries whose students took part in the exam for the first time scored high in the international rankings. For example, Vietnam had a higher average score in math, science and reading than many countries in the European Union, including the Czech Republic. Students in Shanghai — China’s largest city with a 15 million population — ranked best in the world in all three subjects tested by PISA. Shanghai students performed so well in math that the OECD report calculated their score to be the equivalent of nearly three years of schooling above most OECD countries. Performance of students in the European Union is not grim though. Netherlands, Estonia, Finland – whose students scored a congratulatory fifth in science, Poland, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Ireland all scored in the top twenty on average of all three subjects. Czech Republic students scored just average and there is room for improvement. In reading, Czech students scored twenty-sixth on the global ranking, but they performed a little better in math and science. They came in twenty-fourth in math and twenty-second in science. Overall, these scores approximate the average in the European Union. I do not want to get excited about average results while students in other countries are improving and outperforming, but it is important to stay positive. I am confident that if we make quality of education a priority on the political agenda, students will do much better in the European and global rankings. I would like to see Czech and all European students’ scores go up in all three subjects in the upcoming years, but especially in science and math. We need top engineers and computer scientists to support the future of our economies. Nevertheless, Czech students as well as students from quite a few other European Union Member States scored higher than those in the United States. U.S. students came in slightly higher than Czech students in reading, but not in math and science. Overall, U.S. students’ scores on the PISA have relatively flattened since testing began in 2000. However, these scores have reopened the on and off political debate about the state of education in America. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan mentioned in a press conference that the PISA scores are at “odds with our aspiration to have the best-educated, most competitive work force in the world.” This is important because education is a nation-wide priority in the U.S.,
which will positively affect the scholastic results of adolescent students in the coming years. I would like to see the same in Czech Republic and the rest of Europe. We need to make the quality of education a political priority across the E.U. in order to come on top of economically ascendant nations like China, which as I previously mentioned, currently eclipses our students’ performance in the three tested subjects. Nevertheless, let us keep in mind that PISA scores might not tell the full story of performance in education and global competitiveness. Even though adolescent students in Europe and the U.S. scored lower than those in some Asian countries, when it comes to higher education, the current best universities are in the U.S. and Europe. In fact, many middle class Asian families save up for years just to send their children to universities in the E.U. and U.S.. However, although it is generally believed that higher education is what sets the standard for a career – for example in engineering – we must remember that excelling in university also depends on prior preparation, learning and knowledge. From this perspective, perhaps adolescents in Europe and the U.S. encounter a sharper learning curve in their school years after those tested by PISA, than students in other parts of the world, to then be able to attend and achieve excellent performance in universities. Overall though, I want to stress how important it is that each country’s entire educational agenda, that includes secondary and middle schools, prioritizes quality so that we assure our future economic competitive advantage. The PISA report revealed other insights worth mentioning such as an overall international gender gap favoring boys’ performance in math, but girls’ in reading. I was happy to see that both boys and girls performed similarly in science in the large majority of countries tested. Another correlation revealed in the report is between a higher GDP per capita and a strong performance in the three subjects. But this is not universally applicable. For example, in Finland, education is and has been a national priority therefore students from both low and high income families attend high quality schools, and perform similarly. This is also true of students in Asian countries where students from low income families are motivated to raise to the middle class by achieving a high level of education. Ultimately, every country can improve in education, even the best, and they will. That is why it is important for the E.U. Member States to pay more attention to education reforms and improve quality. I look forward to seeing students and professionals in Czech Republic and the rest of Europe at the top in global rankings. By Jan Mühlfeit Chairman Microsoft Europe ■ český překlad naleznete v elektronické verzi magazínu na www.leadersmagazine.cz
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