O’Dowd attends Education World Forum

Sharing best practice and learning from the experiences of others are central to raising educational standards.
~ Tuesday, 29 January 2013

That was the message from Education Minister, John O’Dowd as he attended the 2013 Education World Forum in London. The annual summit for Ministers of Education from around the world is an internationally recognised forum for debating future practice in education.

Speaking at the event the Minister said: “I welcome the opportunity to attend this Forum and to engage with other Ministers and educationalists from around the world. I am firmly of the belief that if we are to build a truly world class education system we need to constantly strive for excellence and identify ways to improve. A strong education system is essential if we are to grow the economy for the benefit of all in society. To achieve this aim we must compare ourselves to, and learn from, other countries who perform better than we do.”

The Minister continued: “However, this Forum is not just about learning from others. We already have much to be proud of in our education system and I have no doubt that others will look at aspects of our system and will aspire to achieve the same high levels.

“For example, a recent significant international report outlined the exceptional results our system is producing at primary level education. In numeracy we rank just behind a group of high performing Pacific-rim countries, whilst in both reading and numeracy we are the highest ranked English-speaking region in the world. I am sure that many other countries will be looking at these results and will be keen to learn more about the policies and initiatives we have in place.”

The Minister continued: “While those impressive results were very welcome, I am not complacent. The levels of inequality and underachievement in our education system remain unacceptably high and I am determined to stamp that out. In addition to continuing our strong performance at primary level we need to improve performance at post-primary level as we are still seeing too many of our young people leaving school without achieving the required level of five GCSEs at A*-C including English and maths.

“Late last year I announced that the north of Ireland will be participating in a major review by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) looking at how assessment and evaluation systems deliver improvements for pupils. These independent experts will draw on all available information to complete an in-depth review of our education system. They will use international best practice to advise us on how to deliver educational improvements for all pupils.

“I look forward to meeting representatives from top performing OECD countries over the next two days and hearing in more detail about the policies they have in place to drive academic excellence and tackle underachievement.”