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International experts examine Scottish education
11/12/2007
Education experts from across the world will look at the quality of the Scottish education system at a special international meeting in Edinburgh today.
The meeting comes as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publishes its review of the performance of the Scottish school system, which finds that "Scotland is a well-schooled nation by international standards."
Education and Lifelong Learning Secretary Fiona Hyslop said this was a real opportunity to learn from each other.
She added:
"The session today gives us all a great chance to share experiences and look at our education from an international perspective.
"The review shows there are some significant strengths in Scotland's schools but also some real challenges for the future.
"In particular, the review team noted that Scotland's approach to teacher induction was world class and that a near universal and high quality pre-school education underpinned our impressive international performance.
"It also gives a series of recommendations which this government is well placed to meet.
"We are already reviewing qualifications at Standard Grade, General/Credit and Intermediate 1 and 2 in line with Curriculum for Excellence and our Skills Strategy will support the work to enhance the school college links and promote parity of esteem for vocational skills in schools.
"The work done by OECD gives the Scottish Government an invaluable international evidence base to use as it develops its educational polices in the future."
The OECD was asked to examine in depth the performance of the school system by the previous administration. Four international examiners (from Australia, New Zealand, Finland, and Belgium) visited Scotland early in March 2007 and also used extensive published papers and international comparisons data to assist with their research.
The review aimed to examine the strengths of Scotland's school education and the challenges the system faces in ensuring high achievement for all.
It was undertaken in the context of Scotland being recognised as a consistently strong performer in international benchmarking assessments undertaken by the OECD since 2000.
Countries represented at today's session include, UK, Denmark, Korea, Luxembourg, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Sweden, Ireland, Netherlands,Mexico, Belgium, New Zealand, Finland and Australia.