"Education: Raising ambitions"

a good article by Barbara Ischinger from the OECD Observer No. 257, October 2006

"Quantity, quality, equity and ambition are the four broad challenges facing education in OECD countries today. Here is why.

"Every eight seconds, one student in the OECD area leaves school without completing an upper secondary qualification. That means a gloomy outlook for his or her future: on average, 26% of adults without upper secondary qualifications earn half or less than half the national median earnings. The trouble is, the penalties for not obtaining strong baseline qualifications continue to rise year after year."