Menores de siete años son alquilados para mendigar según un estudio de la Liga Marroquí para la Protección de la Infancia

Entre cuatro y nueve euros, no más, cuesta alquilar durante toda una semana un niño menor de siete años para mendigar las calles de Marruecos. Lo hará en lugar de su arrendatario, mendigo que en un día recuperará esos nueve euros semanales que le cuesta alquilar al menor. Una vuelta de tuerca al negocio que depende del buen samaritano, pero, sobre todo, a la explotación infantil, la de la calle, la del trabajo forzoso. Lo denuncia la Liga Marroquí para la Protección de la Infancia en un estudio firmado en colaboración con el Ministerio de Sanidad marroquí: el 15 por ciento de los niños menores de siete años que se utilizan para mendigar son alquilados por menos de 100 dirhams (los nueve euros). ¿En qué condiciones? Obligados a ejercer la calle con enfermedades crónicas-malnutrición, uno de cada tres, y bajo la adormilera de los tranquilizantes.

Es un estudio con base en la capital del reino alauí, Rabat, pero pudiera ser cualquier ciudad bien poblada del mundo en desarrollo. Son datos de la ONG internacional Casa Alianza los que estiman que más de 100 millones de niños y niñas –“los nuevos parias de la tierra” los llama esta ONG– viven y trabajan hoy en las calles de los países del Sur. Lo hacen mendigando, pero también comerciando con baratijas, lavando automóviles o limpiando zapatos. La mayoría son varones, tres de cada cuatro, y la mayoría son adictos a las drogas, a los inhalantes, la cocaína de los más pequeños.

Dice UNICEF (Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia) que de estos 100 millones de niños y niñas de la calle, 40 millones residen en América Latina y, de éstos, la mitad dependen para deambular por la aceras de pegamento para el calzado y narcóticos industriales de base solvente. Es lo que les aleja del frío, del hambre, de la soledad; pero les acerca a los daños cerebrales, la malnutrición crónica, las disfunciones nerviosas, la depresión, el suicidio y la muerte. Aunque les permite trabajar. Porque en Bolivia, Perú y Ecuador trabajan el 20 por ciento de los menores de 14 años; en Brasil son dos millones los trabajadores precoces; algo menos en Argentina y la región centroamericana.

Ejemplo es el eje Haití-República Dominicana, bazar de intercambio de menores con destino a la mendicidad. Según datos de la Organización Internacional para las Migraciones, más de dos mil niños abandonan cada año Haití para ejercer de mendigos, de esclavos, en la ciudad dominicana de Santiago. Por cada uno de ellos, los traficantes, entre 45 y 50 agolpados a ambos lados de la frontera, ganan de 60 a 80 dólares. Los padres, generalmente, dan su permiso.

Lejos de allí se repite la indefensión de los niños. En la ciudad de Lahore, Pakistán, el 95 por ciento de los 5.000 menores sin hogar consumen los adhesivos para calzado más baratos del mercado para pasar el trago de la calle. ‘Project Smile’, ONG que trabaja con estos niños es testigo de cómo estos menores, muchos antes de cumplir los 10 años, sufren verdaderos problemas psicológicos que les llevan, incluso, a mutilar partes de su cuerpo con la intención de escapar de las autoridades o, simplemente, ejercer la mendicidad.

De nuevo en Marruecos. De siete a 18 años; llegados de chabolas, barrios superpoblados o el campo; hijos de analfabetos, de familia numerosa; con dos años máximo de periodo escolar; con experiencias profesionales de explotación o esclavitud; con una perspectiva de futuro: Eldorado europeo. Es el perfil que la ONG marroquí Bayti dibuja de los niños de la calle. Sólo en Casablanca, la capital económica del país, son más de cien mil. El porqué, señala Baity: explosión demográfica, trastornos familiares, trabajo infantil y ausencia de alternativas. Los que no tienen padres que animan, obligan o echan la vista a un lado cuando sus hijos mendigan en las calles. Casablanca será, precisamente, el primer punto hacia donde se dirijan los esfuerzos del gobierno marroquí escandalizado por el alquiler de niños mendigos. Así sea controlando el negocio de la mendicidad, el trabajo de los menores, la venta de disolventes a niños, el tráfico de mano de obra infantil... y así sea empezando por las familias que es donde el niño es niño, pero es también donde puede dejar de serlo.
Fecha Publicación: 16/09/2004
Óscar Gutiérrez
Periodista

State school pupils are increasingly willing to try for

Hilary Wilce reports
16 September 2004


First some good news. Comprehensive school children are increasingly willing to give Oxbridge a go. Thanks to open days, outreach visits and summer schools, old fears are breaking down and state schools that once would not have dreamed of entering the Oxbridge race are putting candidates forward.

George Stephenson High School, in a deprived part of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is one. Last year it used everything it could to prepare four candidates for Oxbridge - and all got offers. "There are plenty of systems you can use now. It's a question of knowing which buttons to push," says the assistant head Helen Jackson.

But that also means bad news - and quite a lot of it. First, the growing number of applications - Oxford's were up six per cent last year - is making it ever more competitive. Debby Horsman, the Oxbridge co-ordinator for Wootton Upper School, a rural Bedfordshire comprehensive, says: "The biggest single difference now seems to be that people are no longer automatically granted an interview. We had one candidate this year who did not get one. I'd also say the universities are focusing more and more closely on academic ability."

The second is that this increased openness is not translating into more state school pupils at Oxbridge, or even much of a rise in overall numbers applying. Last year Oxford had a small increase in applicants from maintained schools, while Cambridge had a dip. More depressingly, their success rates were not encouraging. At Oxford, despite the rise in applicants, the proportion of state school students dropped from 54 to 52 per cent. Meanwhile, in Cambridge, only one in four comprehensive school applicants got an offer, compared to a third of all independent school pupil pupils.

What seems to be happening says Elfi Pallis, author of Oxbridge Entrance: the real rules (Tell Books, £10.99), is "a thinning of the soup". As more state schools put forward candidates, state schools which have been successful in the past are no longer doing so, or finding their pupils rejected. Meanwhile, the success rate of independent schools remains steady. Maybe access money, she observes tartly, might be better channelled to "projects which raise acceptance prospects, rather than aspirations. Perhaps a few seminars for admissions tutors on the way to communicate with inner-city kids would be a start."

Pallis, a sociologist and mother of an Oxford student, wrote the book after leading Saturday workshops for gifted and talented children and becoming frustrated by how few went on to Oxbridge. "It was when one of the fathers asked me, 'Oxbridge? Is that the same place as Cambridge?' that I realised how little people knew." She was also cross that people should feel embarrassed about not knowing. "I thought that if I just outlined how it was, all would be well. But when I started my research there were things that horrified me."

The result is a book which inches you through the admissions process, while also scrutinising how Oxbridge really works. There are accounts of sympathetic interviews, and accounts of horrendous ones ("Tim, a well-read candidate, was faced with an elderly interviewer who failed to greet him, settled into a distant window recess and after several minutes barked 'talk about your own subject'".) It offers tips on how to decide which college to apply for and how to prepare for an interview. In short, it gives the kind of mentoring that many independent school pupils - and a few lucky state school ones - take for granted.

No one wanted to publish it, so she did it herself last year, and it sold so well that a second, updated version has just come out. It has been used by schools to groom candidates, although she admits it is impossible to know if anyone has got an Oxbridge offer on the strength of it. "But immediately after it was published two or three interesting things happened," she says. The universities announced moves towards aptitude testing, they made more explicit the generous grants available to poor students, and "some colleges started to make offers of two Bs and an A, instead of three As, although they have kept it quiet because they don't want people to think they're making concessions."

Multiple factors drive such decisions, but it was clear that the book ruffled feathers. Some admissions tutors praised it, but Geoff Parks, the director of admissions for the Cambridge Colleges sent "a letter saying the university did not deal with people who seek to exploit their admissions procedure for commercial gain! This book took me two years to write and I haven't made a penny!"

Pallis acknowledges that both universities want the best candidates, wherever they come from, but argues that the interview system works against this. Her recipe for greater fairness is more emphasis on aptitude testing, a greater awareness of how good pupils from less privileged backgrounds have to be to get themselves to Oxbridge entry level, and an effort to build closer links with state school teachers rather than viewing them as "unreliable suppliers of goods".

'I'D NEVER HAVE THOUGHT I WAS WORTHY'

Shivani Sedov, 21, went to study geography at St Catharine's, Cambridge from The Heathland School, a Hounslow comprehensive. Her mother, who is divorced, works for an import:export company. "If my school hadn't had an Oxbridge programme I'd never have thought of applying," she says. "I'd never have thought I was worthy. I would have thought it was all people from private schools who had spent their whole life preparing for it. Then when I went for my interview the girl before me was very posh and came out carrying her briefcase and I thought, 'Oh my God!'

"My first interview was a tough general one. The woman was very stern, and didn't smile, but in the subject interview I just started raving about geography and I think they could see I was passionate about my subject. What they're looking for is someone they would want to teach next year. Doing mock interviews at school helped because I learnt about body language, and to breathe and calm down, and having mentors at school helped me too.

"When you think about going to Oxbridge you tend to think it's full of all these super-clever people, but when you actually go there you can see that they're not all freaks and geeks, and that they're no more clever than you."

http://education.independent.co.uk/higher/story.jsp?story=562109

Donald MacLeod
Thursday September 16, 2004

The government is poised to announce an additional 48,000 student places at British universities.
In the run-up to next year's expected general election the move signals ministers' determination to press ahead in the face of opposition from both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats towards its target of 50% of young people entering higher education by 2010.

The increase, expected next September, takes account of the rising number of 18-year-olds in the population of England - a demographic "bulge" that is forecast to last for the next three years - but also keeps universities and colleges on track to achieve Tony Blair's 50% target, which would bring the UK up to the average participation rate among developed countries. In Scotland the number of 18-year-olds will continue to fall.

The move will not automatically ease the pressure on university places predicted for 2005, as students rush to get in under the wire of £3,000 tuition fees, but it may help to reassure parents on the election doorstep at a time when the Tories are making a "no fees" pitch.

Vice-chancellors, who were yesterday thanked by the education secretary, Charles Clarke, for their support for the controversial higher education bill, which introduced top-up fees, were pleased with the news revealed during their confidential conference in Oxford this week.

They welcomed the hint that the extra places will include three-year courses as well as two-year foundation degrees, which the government favours as a way of attracting more people into higher education.

But members of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, will look closely at the details of the expansion plan as they emerge from the government's comprehensive spending review. They will want to know how the funding council Hefce will distribute the extra places and will seek reassurances that additional students will be fully funded.

Extra students starting next year will give universities and higher education colleges a higher base to work from when it comes to recruiting fee-payers from 2006, when they are expected to charge £3,000 a year in fees.

For many universities, however, the search is on for overseas rather than home students because they can charge them much higher fees. Research-led institutions like Oxford, Cambridge and University College London are expected to freeze or even cut the number of home and European Union undergraduates while expanding overseas and postgraduate numbers.

Yesterday, the president of UUK, Ivor Crewe, warned that foreign students were now essential for British universities to balance their books and teach home students.

He urged the government to adopt a coordinated national policy to market universities abroad.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1306154,00.html

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No wire transmission or other media use until 14 September 2004, 11:00 Paris OECD time
Briefing note – MEXICO
For questions refer to:
Andreas Schleicher, Head, Indicators and Analysis Division, OECD Directorate for Education
Tel: +33 1 4524 9366, email Andreas.Schleicher@OECD.org

Investment in education
Mexico has made major investments in education…
• Between 1995 and 2001, spending on primary and secondary education in Mexico increased
by 36%, the steepest increase after Turkey, New Zealand, Australia, Poland and Portugal.
Spending per student increased, with 25%, at a somewhat lower rate, because enrolment rose
also by 9% (Table B1.5).
• Also at the tertiary level, educational spending increased significantly between 1995 and
2001, by 22%. However, since tertiary enrolment rose faster (by 36%), spending per tertiary
student declined by 10%. This has decreased the large gap between spending per tertiary
student and spending per primary student in Mexico somewhat, but it remains the largest gap
among OECD countries (Table B1.5).
• For the first time, educational spending as a percentage of GDP is in Mexico now, at 5.9%,
above the OECD average level of 5.6%. Mexico is one of only 8 OECD countries in which
spending on education rose faster than GDP per capita (Table B2.1a).
• At 24%, the share of public spending invested in education is the highest among OECD
countries and almost twice as high as at the OECD average level (12.7%). In 1995, the share
was still at 22% (Table B4.1).
Spending per student remains low but, relatively speaking, upper secondary and tertiary
students are better off…
• Nevertheless, spending per primary student is in Mexico at US$ 1357 (adjusted for
differences in Purchasing Power Parities) still very low, approximately one quarter of the
OECD average (US $ 5787). The same holds for lower secondary education.
• At the upper secondary level spending per student is, at US$ 3144 significantly higher, but
still less than half the OECD average level (US$ 6752).
• Also the tertiary level, spending per student is, at US$ 4341, less than half of spending per
student at the OECD average level (US$ 10052). Although tertiary students are far better off
than primary or lower secondary students, spending per tertiary student over the average
duration of studies in Mexico (US$ 14858, Table B1.3) is less than what Sweden,
Switzerland and the United States spend per student in a single year, namely US$ 15188,
US$ 20230 and US$ 22234.
Education at a Glance 2004 No wire transmission or other media use until 14 September 2004, 11:00 Paris time
- 2 -
Most of educational spending is tied up in current spending
• Most of educational spending in Mexico is tied up in current spending. Less than 2.8% of
spending at primary and secondary levels is for capital spending, leaving little room for
improving the educational infrastructure (OECD average 8.4%). The situation is similar at
the tertiary level, where only 4.3% are devoted to capital expenditure, compared with an
OECD average of 11.5% (Table B6.3).
• Moreover, most of current spending at primary and secondary levels goes to the
compensation of staff, leaving at the primary level only 6.4% for other current expenditure,
such as instructional materials (OECD average 19.3%). The situation is less pronounced at
the tertiary level (Table B6.3).
Educational attainment
More people around the world are completing university courses and other forms of tertiary
education than ever before. However, progress has been uneven across countries and some
have significantly fallen behind, potentially compromising their future ability to keep up with
economic and social progress.
• Almost all OECD countries have seen a rise in the education levels of their citizens over the
past decade, and in some countries the increase has been spectacular. Enrolment in tertiary
education, which covers university-level education and high-level vocational programmes,
increased between 1995 and 2002 by more than 50% in the Czech Republic, Greece,
Hungary, Iceland, Korea and Poland. The increase amounted to 30% in Mexico – albeit
from a very low base - and to still more than 20% in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Austria, France and Germany were the only
countries which did not see increases, mainly because rising enrolment rates could not make
up for the demographic decline in these countries (Table C2.2).
• Despite increases, university-level attainment in Mexico is, at 5% among 25-34-year-olds
and at 2% among 55-64-year-olds, still very low. Moreover, some countries with a similarly
low base in the past have seen much steeper increases in tertiary attainment than Mexico.
For example, a generation ago, among 55-64-year-olds, Korea had an attainment rate of only
8% but it is now 26% among 25-34-year-olds. This has moved Korea up from rank 22
among the 30 OECD countries a generation ago to rank 4 today, whereas Mexico has
remained at rank 30 (Table A3.3). Other countries that have moved up significantly over the
last generation include Spain (13 rank order positions) as well as Belgium, Greece, Japan (6
rank order positions).
• The situation is even more pronounced with regard to baseline qualifications, equivalent to
the completion of the upper secondary level of education, where Mexico has fallen further
behind over the last generation, from rank 29 to rank 30, while Korea has moved from rank
24 to 1. As a result, only 21% of Mexican 35-34-year-olds now have an upper secondary
qualification, compared with an OECD average of 75% (Table A2.2). Other countries that
have moved up significantly over the last generation include Japan (8 rank order positions)
and Japan (7 rank order positions).
Rising tertiary education levels among citizens seem generally not to have led to an “inflation”
of the labour-market value of qualifications.
• As newly available data show, rising education levels among citizens seem generally not to
have led to an “inflation” of the labour-market value of qualifications. On the contrary,
among the countries in which the proportion of 25-64 year-olds with tertiary qualifications
Education at a Glance 2004 No wire transmission or other media use until 14 September 2004, 11:00 Paris time
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increased by more than 5 percentage points since 1995 - Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom
(Table A3.4a) – most have seen falling unemployment (Table A10.2b) and rising earnings
benefits (Table A11.2) among tertiary graduates over the last years. In Australia, Canada,
Germany, Hungary, Ireland and the United Kingdom the earnings benefit of tertiary
increased by between 6 and 14 percentage points (United Kingdom 6 percentage points)
between 1997 and 2001 and, among the 15 countries with comparable data, only three saw a
decline in the earnings benefits of tertiary education over upper secondary education: New
Zealand (-15 percentage points), Norway (-3 percentage points) and Spain (-20 percentage
points).
Tertiary education is becoming an international domain.
• In 2002, 1.9 million students were enrolled in the OECD area outside their country of origin
(Table C3.6), with nearly three quarters of them choosing Australia, France, Germany, the
United Kingdom and the United States as their destination (Chart C3.2). On average, foreign
enrolment increased by 34% between 1998 and 2002 (Table C3.6) and the share of foreign
students from throughout the world as a percentage of all students increased in the Czech
Republic, Iceland, Korea, New Zealand and Sweden by 60% or more. In contrast, in Austria,
Ireland, Switzerland and the United States, increases in the share of foreign enrolment
ranged between only 8% and 13%, and Turkey (-16%), the United Kingdom (-6%) and
Poland (-5%) saw declines in the share of foreign enrolment. Mexico is not a common
destination for foreign students but almost 1% of Mexican tertiary students study abroad.
Education in Mexico can build on a growing foundation in early childhood.
• OECD’s thematic review of early childhood education and care has underlined the
importance of a strong start for children. In Mexico, 37 children under age 4 for every 100
3-4-year-olds now participate in pre-primary education (Table C1.2). Although this is
significantly below the OECD average of 68%, it is more than in a fair number of other
OECD countries, including Australia, Greece, Ireland, Korea, Poland and Switzerland.
Noteworthy, spending per child at the pre-primary level is, in Mexico, higher than at the
primary level.
The learning environment and organisation of schools
High student-teaching ratios…
• The ratio of students to teaching staff ranges in Mexico from 1.5 times the OECD average in
pre-primary education (with 22 students per teacher) to 2 times the OECD average in lowersecondary
education, where teachers are responsible in Mexico for 32 students compared
with an OECD average of 14 students per teacher (Table D2.2). This high ratio is likely to
influence the amount of attention devoted to each student as well as the quality of the
outcomes.
• Instructional time for students amounts in Mexico to 800 hours per year for students aged 9-
11 years (OECD average of 843 hours) and 1 167 hours for students aged 12-14 years
(OECD average of 933 hours) (Table D1.1, page 318).
…and a high teaching load for teachers pose challenges for the education system in Mexico.
• At the primary level, the teaching load of teachers in Mexico, 800 statutory hours per year,
is close to the OECD average of 803 hours (Table D4.2). By contrast, a lower secondary
Education at a Glance 2004 No wire transmission or other media use until 14 September 2004, 11:00 Paris time
- 4 -
teacher in Mexico is required to teach 1 167 hours per year, the highest number of statutory
teaching hours among OECD countries (OECD average 717 hours).
Rather low salary per teaching hour in Mexico…
• The OECD average statutory salary per net teaching hour after 15 years of experience is
US$ 38 in primary, US$ 47 in lower secondary, and US$ 54 in upper secondary general
education.
• In primary education, Hungary, Mexico, the Slovak Republic and Turkey have relatively
low salary costs per teaching hour (US$ 20 or less). By contrast, costs are relatively high in
Denmark, Germany, Japan and Korea (US$ 50 or more). (Table D3.1)
… but a major investment in human resources despite lower levels of national income.
• Statutory salaries in Mexico are low by absolute standards (little more than half the OECD
average) but among the highest in the OECD when compared with GDP per capita. The
ratios of salary after 15 years of experience to GDP per capita, for Mexico in primary and in
lower secondary education at respectively 1.77 and 2.25, are well above the OECD average
of 1.33 and 1.37 (Chart D3.1).
• Since 1996, teachers in Mexico have seen the steepest increase in salaries, with gains for a
teacher with 15 years of experience of 43% at the primary level (OECD average 11%) and
47% in lower secondary education (OECD average 12%).
Decision-making has become more decentralised
• For the first time, Education at a Glance 2004 also examines how the division of
responsibilities between schools as well as local, regional and national authorities has
evolved in response to demands for improving efficiency, increasing responsiveness to local
communities and fostering the potential for innovation and quality improvement.
• Schools in Mexico have limited decision-making autonomy, with only 22% of the areas of
decisions that were analysed taken by schools, compared with an OECD average of 42%.
45% of decisions are made at state levels and 30% at central levels. Provincial or local
education authorities only play a minor role (Table D6.1). A decision-making area where
schools in Mexico have a significant role concerns the organisation of instruction in schools,
where 75% of decisions are made by schools (OECD average 81%), and 25% by the central
government. In contrast, schools have virtually no role in decisions concerning personnel
management and the allocation of resources (OECD averages 44% and 41%).

Education at a Glance 2004 is available to journalists on the OECD's password-protected
website. For further information, journalists are invited to contact the OECD's Media Relations
Division (tel. [33] 1 45 24 97 00). Subscribers and readers at subscribing institutions can access
the report via SourceOECD, our online library. Non-subscribers can purchase the report via
our Online Bookshop.

http://www.oecd.org/document/7/0,2340,en_2649_34515_33712135_1_1_1_1,00.html

14/09/2004 - More people around the world are completing university courses and other forms of tertiary education than ever before, according to the 2004 edition of Education at a Glance, the OECD's annual compendium of education statistics. However, progress has been uneven across countries and some have significantly fallen behind, potentially compromising their future ability to keep up with economic and social progress.

On average across OECD countries, half of today's young adults now enter universities or other institutions offering similar qualifications at some stage during their life (Table C2.1). An average 32% complete a first university-level degree, but this ranges from less than 20% in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland to 45% in Australia and Finland (Table A3.1).


Almost all OECD countries have seen a rise in the education levels of their citizens over the past decade, and in some countries the increase has been spectacular. Enrolment in tertiary education, which covers both university-level education and high-level vocational programmes, increased between 1995 and 2002 by more than 50% in the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Korea and Poland, and still by more than 20% in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Austria, France and Germany are the only countries which did not see increases, mainly because rising enrolment rates could not make up for the demographic decline in these countries (Table C2.2).


However, in eight OECD countries, 20% or more of 20-to-24-year olds have at most only lower secondary school qualifications and are not in education. Mexico is in the least favourable position, with 70% of people in this age group having lower secondary education or less, followed by Turkey (56%), Portugal (47%), Spain (32%), Iceland (29%), Italy (25%), the Netherlands (21%) and Luxembourg (20%). Low educational attainment concerns more young males than females in 19 out of the 27 countries for which statistics are available, and particularly in Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain (Table C5.1).


The statistics in Education at a Glance provide a basis for policy debate and decisions in the world's most developed countries. This year, the report highlights factors affecting the future supply of qualified people and the relationship between educational attainment and employment and earnings.



In general, people with tertiary qualifications command significantly higher salaries than those with only secondary education. In the U.S., earnings for tertiary graduates are 86% higher on average than those for people with only secondary education, and in Hungary they are more than double. At the other end of the scale, the difference is smallest in Denmark, where graduates earn on average 25% more than non-graduates, and Spain, where they earn 29% more (Table A11.1a). They also stand a stronger chance of finding jobs: on average in OECD countries, around 89% of men and 78% of women with university degrees are in employment, compared with around 84% of men and 63% of women who ended their education at secondary level (Table A10.1a).

In all countries with available data, the returns for tertiary education are well in excess of the potential rate of return on investing the money represented by the cost of undertaking a university course. But they are significantly lower for those who enter tertiary education later in life (Table A11.5).


As new data show for the first time, rising tertiary education levels among citizens seem generally not to have led to an "inflation" of the labour-market value of qualifications. On the contrary, among the countries in which the proportion of 25-64 year-olds with tertiary qualifications increased by more than 5 percentage points since 1995 - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom (Table A3.4a) - most have seen falling unemployment (Table A10.2b) and rising earnings benefits (Table A11.2) among tertiary graduates over the last years.


In Australia, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and the United Kingdom the earnings benefit of tertiary education increased by between 6 and 14 percentage points between 1997 and 2001. Among the 15 countries with comparable data, only three saw a decline in the earnings benefits of tertiary education over upper secondary education: New Zealand (-15 percentage points), Norway (-3 percentage points) and Spain (-20 percentage points).



Improved education also contributes to a country's overall prosperity, helping to raise labour productivity and technological progress and thereby boosting economic growth. The long-run impact in the OECD area of one additional year of education is estimated to increase economic output by between 3% and 6%.



Tertiary education is rapidly becoming an international domain. In 2002, 1.9 million students were enrolled in the OECD area outside their country of origin (Table C3.6), with nearly three quarters of them choosing Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States as their destination (Chart C3.2). On average, foreign enrolment increased by 34% between 1998 and 2002 (Table C3.6) and the share of foreign students from throughout the world as a percentage of all students increased in the Czech Republic, Iceland, Korea, New Zealand and Sweden by 60% or more. In contrast, in Austria, Ireland, Switzerland and the United States, increases in the share of foreign enrolment ranged between only 8% and 13%, and Poland, the United Kingdom and Turkey saw declines in their share of foreign enrolment.


Significant progress has also been achieved in reducing the gender gap in educational qualifications. Younger women today are far more likely to have completed a tertiary qualification than women 30 years ago: in 19 of the 30 OECD countries, more than twice as many women aged 25 to 34 have completed tertiary education than women aged 55 to 64 do. In 21 of 27 OECD countries with comparable data, the number of women graduating from university-level programmes is equal to or exceeds that of men (Table A4.2). Last but not least, 15-year-old girls tend to show much higher expectations for their careers than boys of the same age (Table A9.1).


What has remained broadly unchanged, though, is that women still earn less on average than men in all OECD countries, whatever their level of education. On average, women without upper secondary education obtain 60% of the earnings of men with the same level of education. Women with upper secondary and tertiary qualifications average 65% of equivalent male earnings (Table A11.1b).


In mathematics and computer science, gender differences in tertiary qualifications remain persistently high: the proportion of women among university graduates in mathematics and computer science is only 30%, on average, among OECD countries, and in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, the Slovak Republic and Switzerland it is only between 9%and 25% (Table A4.2).

http://www.oecd.org/document/31/0,2340,en_2649_201185_33710751_1_1_1_1,00.html