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A fragmented school network resulting from demographic shifts and regional economic developments can place a significant financial burden on education systems across OECD Member and non-Member countries. This is the case in Latvia, which has made the reorganisation of its school network a policy priority. The Latvian Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) is working jointly with municipalities to ensure high-quality education for every child regardless of school location. On this basis, the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills and OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities provided technical assistance to Latvia through capacity building workshops and the co-construction of a geospatial simulation model to identify schools to be considered for closing or merging. This report presents the key findings of the geospatial modelling, confirming there indeed is considerable scope for consolidating the school network and offers concrete policy recommendations for MoES and education stakeholders to consider for advancing Latvia’s school network reorganisation initiative.

In recent years, provision of relevant up-skilling and re-skilling opportunities for adults has become a necessity due to global megatrends affecting labour markets. As a result, countries are looking to strengthen these opportunities throughout the life course. The successful deployment of these initiatives requires a coherent set of policies, with quality assurance being critically important. This paper provides an overview of quality assurance mechanisms from the perspective of the 38 OECD member countries. It proposes a framework to characterise and compare the governance, processes and outcomes of these mechanisms. The paper's contribution is to facilitate understanding of quality assurance across OECD countries, presenting a visual cross-country mapping that classifies existing mechanisms.

This Education Spotlight presents key lessons and inspiring examples of policy and practice to inform collaboration between secondary education and higher education. The Spotlight was prepared by the OECD Higher Education Policy Team as part of the Education and Innovation Practice Community (EIPC), an action of the European Union’s New European Innovation Agenda, flagship 4 on 'Fostering, attracting and retaining deep tech talent'. EIPC seeks to bring together peers from policy and practice to advance understanding of the competencies that can trigger and shape innovation for the digital and green transitions, and the mechanisms through which higher education can contribute to their development in secondary education (Strand 1), higher education (Strand 2), and adult upskilling and reskilling (Strand 3).

The rapid acceleration in the pace of AI innovation in recent years and the advent of content generating capabilities (Generative AI or GenAI) have increased interest in AI innovation in finance, in part due to the user-friendliness and intuitive interface of GenAI tools. The use of AI in financial markets involving full end-to-end automation without any human intervention remains largely at development phase, but its wider deployment could amplify risks already present in financial markets and give rise to new challenges. This paper presents recent evolutions in AI in finance and potential risks and discusses whether policy makers may need to reinforce policies and strengthen protection against these risks.

As countries seek to draw lessons the COVID-19 crisis and increase their future resilience, evaluations are important tools to understand what worked or not, why and for whom. This report builds on the OECD work on 'government evaluations of COVID-19 responses'. It evaluates Belgium’s responses to the pandemic in terms of risk preparedness, crisis management, as well as public health, education, economic and fiscal, and social and labour market policies. Preserving the country’s resilience in the future will require promoting trust in public institutions and whole-of-government approaches to crisis management, reducing inequalities, and preserving the fiscal balance. The findings and recommendations of this report will provide guidance to public authorities in these efforts.

Smaller, more targeted, and more flexible than traditional education and training programmes, micro-credentials have become a prominent feature of education, training and labour market policy discussions in recent years. Several OECD countries have already started the development of national micro-credential ecosystems, and many others are looking to follow suit. This OECD Education Policy Perspective serves as Part A in a two-part series of summary papers. This paper examines the evolving landscape of micro-credentials, focusing on the development of public policies that can foster effective utilisation of micro-credentials for lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling. The paper also provides a self-assessment tool for micro-credential policy implementation, which identifies a range of policy measures and considerations needed for the establishment and effective operation of national micro-credential ecosystems. This document was authored by Shizuka Kato from the OECD Higher Education Policy Team and Thomas Weko from George Washington University.

Smaller, more targeted, and more flexible than traditional education and training programmes, micro-credentials have become a prominent feature of education, training and labour market policy discussions in recent years. Several OECD countries have already started the development of national micro-credential ecosystems, and many others are looking to follow suit. This OECD Education Policy Perspective serves as Part B in a two-part series of summary papers. The first publication, Paper A, examined the evolving landscape of micro-credentials, with a particular focus on the development of public policies that can foster effective utilisation of micro-credentials for lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling. This publication, Paper B, presents case studies from four European Union Member States – Finland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Spain. The document was authored by Roza Gyorfi and Shizuka Kato from the OECD Higher Education Policy Team and Thomas Weko from George Washington University.

This report, linked with the Digital Education Outlook 2023, provides an overview of 29 countries’ (or jurisdictions') digital education ecosystem and governance. Each chapter covers the devolution of responsibilities within countries; how it affects digital education; what digital tools for management and teaching and learning are made publicly available to schools, teachers and students; how they are provided or procured; how countries ensure the security, privacy, equity and effectiveness of this digital ecosystem while keeping incentives for private education technology (EdTech) companies. The information and analysis are based on a survey on digital education infrastructure and governance, interviews with national and regional government officials as well as desk-based research. Providing for the first time a holistic view of 29 countries’ and jurisdictions' digital education ecosystem and governance, this report will be of interest to policy makers, academics and education stakeholders interested in the digital transformation of education at home and internationally.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in mathematics, reading and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries. This is one of five volumes that present the results of the eighth round of assessment, PISA 2022. Volume I, The State of Learning and Equity in Education, describes students’ performance in mathematics, reading and science; examines gender differences in performance; and investigates how performance relates to students’ socio-economic status and immigrant background. It also describes how the quality and equity of learning outcomes have evolved since previous PISA assessments.