10-11-2013 01:33 PM

Daily chart: Adept adults

A new study shows huge international variations in skills
HAVING spent years obsessing over pupils' performance in the OECD’s PISA study, which compares the literacy, numeracy and science skills of 15-year-olds in 22 developed countries, governments are now turning their attention to the highly variable skills of adults. New research from the OECD looks at adult literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills. Almost a third of grown-ups in Italy, Spain and America showed a poor grasp of numbers, compared with one in eight in Finland and the Czech Republic, and less than one in ten in Japan. Worryingly, some university degrees turn out not to offer much advantage over good secondary-school qualifications. Those who completed school in Japan and the Netherlands but did not go on to higher education outperformed southern European graduates of the same age. See full article.




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