Posts Tagged oecd
Critical Mass: Government’s ‘Small’ Infant Classes Too Big
Posted by Claire Daley in Education on 09/09/2008
Infant classes of 20 or under needed to close the achievement gap
OECD figures out today show how poorly the UK continues to compare internationally on class size. Primary class sizes rank 4th largest at 25.8 (compared to the OECD average of 21.5). Additional government figures reveal that in England’s primary schools in 2007/08 the average class size was even higher, at 26.2 pupils per class. According to the evidence, this matters most in infant classes (for 4-7 year-olds, Reception to Year 2), which rose from 25.6 in 2006/07 to an average of 25.7 pupils per class.
Development aid: A job for the Commission?
Posted by James Gubb in European Union on 03/04/2007
A report published today by the OECD confirms the EU’s position as the biggest aid donor in the world. Combined, the EU-15 gave away €48 billion in overseas development aid (ODA), or 0.42 percent of their GDP, in 2006. This represents a massive 57% of world development aid. The report also highlights how there is a hefty discrepancy within this chunk between the most generous member states, for example Sweden (1.03%), Luxembourg (0.89%) and the Netherlands (0.81%), and the stingiest, Greece (0.16%), followed by Italy (0.20%) and Portugal (0.21%). Significantly, the latter are all behind their EU aid targets. Putting this aside though, just how effective is EU development aid?