EDUCATION REPORT - O.E.C.D. Says Adult Schooling Should Not

EDUCATION REPORT - O.E.C.D. Says Adult Schooling¹ Should Not Be Limited to the Highly Skilled
By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Thursday, September 22, 2005

I'm Bob Doughty² with the VOA Special English Education Report.

 
OECD Report
Many countries need to do more to offer education and training for people of all ages. So says a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in Paris. "Education at a Glance Two Thousand Five" looks at the thirty member countries of the O.E.C.D.

The report says the number of people being educated continues to increase. But it says there is still a shortage of training for adults who need it the most. These include people in low-skilled jobs or no job at all. And the difference in earnings³ continues to grow between those who are better educated and those who are not.

The O.E.C.D. report notes great improvement in school performance in some countries. For example, ninety-seven percent of South Koreans born in the nineteen seventies have completed upper secondary education. This compares to thirty-two percent of those born in the nineteen forties.

In O.E.C.D. countries, fifty-seven percent of the university graduates now are women. But the report says the share of women among mathematicians⁴, computer scientists or engineers is thirty percent or less. And university-educated women in many countries earn less than similarly qualified⁵ men.

The report says O.E.C.D. countries spend an average of seven thousand dollars per student per year. Switzerland and the United States spend the most on education, more than eleven thousand dollars. They also are among the countries that pay their teachers the most. But higher spending is no guarantee of a higher quality education.

The report says Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands and New Zealand spend moderately. Yet their fifteen-year-olds are among the top students of any of the countries compared in the report.

The Bush administration says its federal education law, called No Child Left Behind, is improving student performance. The O.E.C.D. says the test results used in the report are not recent enough to show any possible effects. But it praises the attempt to deal with problems in schools.

It also says the strength of the American education system may be in its higher education system, which is highly competitive. The report says almost thirty percent of foreign students choose to study in the United States.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.  I'm Bob Doughty.

1 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

2 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

3 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

4 mathematicians   

数学家( mathematician的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? 你以为我们的数学家做不到这一点吗？ 来自英汉文学
• Mathematicians can solve problems with two variables. 数学家们可以用两个变数来解决问题。 来自哲学部分

5 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。