Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

11. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his response to the latest OECD Education at a Glance report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32265/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the publication of the 2013 edition of this annual publication, Education at a Glance, by the OECD. I am a strong believer in the value of good comparative international data as one source of information among many to support informed policy making in education.

The report is an extensive one, covering a wide range of themes including educational completion rates, educational expenditure, the social gains from education and school characteristics, based mainly on data up to the 2010-11 school year.

Several positive achievements of the Irish educational system are evident in the report. We have higher completion rates to the end of second level education than other countries for the 25-34 year age group in the OECD (Ireland: 85%; OECD 82%) and completion of third level education among the 25-34 year group was particularly high here (Ireland - 47%; OECD - 39%). Expenditure per student at all levels of education in Ireland was above the OECD average. The report shows our PTR and class sizes in primary schools to be broadly in line with the OECD average: the PTR is 15.7: 1 in Ireland just above the OECD average of 15.4:1 and average class sizes are shown as 23.9 versus 21.3 across the OECD.