WE, THE MINISTERS AND REPRESENTATIVES OF Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union, met at the OECD headquarters in Paris on 7-8 December 2022 for the meeting of the Education Policy Committee (EDPC) at Ministerial level, co-chaired by Korea, Norway and Portugal, supported by Estonia, Finland, Greece and Japan, as Vice-Chairs to discuss how education can build the foundations for accessible, equitable, inclusive, sustainable democratic societies and how this can be enhanced through co-operation in the OECD framework.
WE CONDEMN Russia’s unjustifiable, unprovoked and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine in the strongest possible terms as a flagrant violation of international law that shakes the very foundation of the international order, in line with the 2022 OECD Ministerial Council Statement; RECALL the decision of the OECD Council of 8 March 2022 to immediately suspend participation of the Russian Federation and Belarus in OECD bodies; and EXPRESS OUR DEEP CONCERNS about the far-reaching consequences of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has caused the deaths of children, and destroyed schools and educational facilities. It exacerbates an already-existing education crisis caused by the pandemic that continues to cause irreparable damage to the emotional well-being of children, learners, and educators, and has spillover effects on other countries in the region and worldwide.
WE STAND IN SOLIDARITY with the people and the democratically elected government of Ukraine and HIGHLIGHT the need to address the cognitive, social and emotional needs of all Ukrainian learners affected by the war, in and outside of Ukraine.
WE RECALL the OECD 60th Vision Statement “ Trust in Global Co-operation – The Vision for the OECD for the Next Decade ”, which reasserts our core values, reaffirms our founding goals and provides that the “ OECD will continue its important work on […] research, education, lifelong learning and skills ”.
WE RESTATE our commitment to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and, in particular, Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to “ ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all ”.
WE WELCOME the role of the OECD to support Member and partner countries in their efforts to achieve high-quality lifelong learning for all, which contributes to personal development, fair and sustainable economic growth, social cohesion and well-being.
WE WELCOME , in this context, the continuous co-operation between the OECD and other international organisations active in this area.
WE RECOGNISE that OECD education benchmarks and analysis have become global references for education and help respond to the challenges of a changing world and the necessity to develop relevant new competencies.
WE RECOGNISE that responsibility for education within countries may be held at different levels of government in line with our respective legal and institutional frameworks.
Building more equitable societies through education and training
WE RECOGNISE the unique potential of education starting from early childhood to enable social mobility, reduce inequalities, value diversity and build strong foundations for equitable, inclusive, sustainable democratic societies.
WE ARE COMMITTED to empowering all learners, with a focus on the most vulnerable in our societies, to develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to fulfil their potential and contribute to the economic and social well-being of their societies as they face constant change and sudden disruptions such as technological advancements or the transition to a green economy.
WE REAFFIRM our commitment to innovative and evidence-based policies and investments that support all learners and educators to actively engage in lifelong learning.
WE CALL on the OECD, through the EDPC, and in collaboration with other relevant OECD committees, to:
● Support countries to strengthen economic and social outcomes through education and skills, and leverage synergies with other policy fields to ensure that education and training contribute to better and more equitable economic and labour-market outcomes, greater social participation, better-functioning democracies and a more sustainable environment.
● Support countries to ensure high quality teaching as a significant factor in improving outcomes for learners, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
● Strengthen the evidence base on links between skills development, thriving economies and equitable and inclusive societies.
● Support countries, based on sound evidence, in designing and implementing education and skills policies that recognise the diverse backgrounds and needs of learners, and provide them with effective and equitable opportunities to develop and maintain their potential, and contribute to society.
● Focus its work on disaggregated data and indicators on distributional aspects of access, resourcing and quality of education and skills training, and their effects on educational, economic and social outcomes.
● Regularly track progress on equity internationally and improve the comparability and consistency of data.
Reimagining education
WE PLEDGE to use the opportunity of the post-COVID recovery in education to create a bold vision for the future of learning.
WE ARE COMMITTED to developing education systems that help every learner to reach their potential by promoting a diversity of learning pathways and innovative learning environments, and ensuring high quality teaching, including effective professional development of educators throughout their careers.
WE CALL on the OECD, through the EDPC, and in collaboration with other relevant OECD committees to support countries to:
● Create and realise a bolder vision on how to leverage spaces, time, technology and human resources to provide more effective and inclusive learning opportunities, based on sound evidence.
● Give learners a voice in what they learn, how they learn, where they learn and when they learn.
● Develop a whole-child/person and whole-of-society approach to reimagine education that is fit for the future.
● Enable educational institutions to fulfil their role in support of the cognitive, social and emotional development of learners.
● Develop effective strategies to promote gender equality and support vulnerable groups in education, including persons with disabilities.
● Design innovative learning environments and pedagogies based on sound evidence that leverage the science of learning and the potential of digital technologies and promote a responsible use of these tools.
● Foster open educational resources and strengthen interoperability of digital solutions in ways that reconcile ethics, personal rights and privacy with the value of big data and analytics in the field of education.
● Identify and explore emerging trends that could shape the future of education and provide them with a platform for peer learning and collaboration in order to learn from and with each other, and with other sectors.
● Recognise and address the challenges and pressures that stifle innovation and inhibit the change required to achieve a bolder vision for education while maintaining the commitment to education as foundational to fostering democratic and equitable societies.
● Recognise and address the changing roles of education professionals and develop policies that empower them.
● Analyse the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on learners and how countries are effectively addressing this in their respective education systems.
Supporting skills for the future
WE SUPPORT learning throughout the life course from birth through work and beyond.
WE ARE COMMITTED to helping learners build skills for a digital, green, inclusive and democratic world that balances the growth of individuals and the economic, social and environmental well-being of societies.
WE CALL on the OECD, through the EDPC, and in collaboration with other relevant OECD committees to:
● Build a new vision for skills development that keeps pace with changes in societies and economies and supports the transition to net-zero.
● Support countries to foster environmental sustainability through education.
● Support countries in the development of strategies to empower and support all learners appropriately to build foundational and transferable skills for current and future labour markets as well as for digital and green democracies.
● Support countries to collaborate with diverse social partners, communities, business, and learners to anticipate future skills needs in constantly transforming economies, societies and labour markets.
● Explore approaches to measure the outcomes of education and training for all subsets of the population, and strengthen the analysis of OECD surveys in a life course perspective.
● Support countries to better integrate the world of learning with the world of work in education, training, upskilling and reskilling.