An Asia-Pacific Model of Development Cooperation

Part One of the Osaka Action Agenda has clarified the implications of the basic political commitment to free and open trade and investment in the Bogor Declaration and has set out operational guiding principles and a well-developed strategy of implementation. This paper seeks to build on the broad concepts set in Part Two of Osaka Agenda to clarify the implications of the shared commitment of APEC leaders to development cooperation. From the concepts put forward by the APEC Eminent Person Group and the proposal of Partners for Progress, precise objective, guiding principles and priorities can be set out for the implementation of a realistic and balanced strategy for development cooperation.trade sector, investment, APEC

An Asia-Pacific Model of Development Cooperation

Part One of the Osaka Action Agenda has clarified the implications of the basic political commitment to free and open trade and investment in the Bogor Declaration and has set out operational guiding principles and a well-developed strategy of implementation. This paper seeks to build on the broad concepts set in Part Two of Osaka Agenda to clarify the implications of the shared commitment of APEC leaders to development cooperation. From the concepts put forward by the APEC Eminent Person Group and the proposal of Partners for Progress, precise objective, guiding principles and priorities can be set out for the implementation of a realistic and balanced strategy for development cooperation.trade sector, investment, APEC

ADB–OECD Study on Enhancing Financial Accessibility for SMEs: Lessons from Recent Crises

During the era of global financial uncertainty, stable access to appropriate funding sources has been much harder for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The global financial crisis impacted SMEs and entrepreneurs disproportionately, exacerbating their traditional financing constraints. The financial conditions of many SMEs were weakened by the drop in demand for goods and services and the credit tightening. The sovereign debt crisis that hit several European countries contributed to further deterioration in bank lending activities, which negatively affected private sector development. The global regulatory response to financial crises, such as the Basel Capital Accord, while designed to reduce systemic risks may also constrain bank lending to SMEs. In particular, Basel III requires banks to have tighter risk management as well as greater capital and liquidity. Resulting asset preference and deleveraging of banks, particularly European banks with significant presence in Asia, could limit the availability of funding for SMEs in Asia and the Pacific. Lessons from the recent financial crises have motivated many countries to consider SME access to finance beyond conventional bank credit and to diversify their national financial system. Improving SME access to finance is a policy priority at the country and global level. Poor access to finance is a critical inhibiting factor to the survival and growth potential of SMEs. Financial inclusion is thus key to the development of the SME sector, which is a driver of job creation and social cohesion and takes a pivotal role in scaling up national economies. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have recognized that it is crucial to develop a comprehensive range of policy options on SME finance, including innovative financing models. With this in mind, sharing Asian and OECD experiences on SME financing would result in insightful discussions on improving SME access to finance at a time of global financial uncertainty. Based on intensive discussions in two workshops organized by ADB in Manila on 6–7 March 2013 and by OECD in Paris on 21 October 2013, the two organizations together compiled this study report on enhancing financial accessibility for SMEs, especially focusing on lessons from the past and recent crises in Asia and OECD countries. The report takes a comparative look at ADB and OECD experiences, and aims to identify promising policy solutions for creating an SME base that is resilient to crisis, from a viewpoint of access to finance, and which can help drive growth and development

School Improvement Through Strong Leadership

According to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), principals, on average, report frequently engaging in a number of activities that are consistent with instructional leadership. However, this is not the case in every country and large proportions of them report that their training did not include any instructional leadership training or course. Although continuous professional development could help fill those gaps, many school leaders report a number of obstacles preventing them from taking part in such learning, including a lack of support and opportunities, and personal and professional obstacles

Supporting new teachers

In many countries, less experienced teachers (those with less than five years’ teaching experience) are more likely to work in challenging schools and less likely to report confidence in their teaching abilities than more experienced teachers. Most countries have activities in place aimed at preparing teachers for work, such as induction and mentoring programmes. Approximately 44% of teachers work in schools where principals report that all new teachers have access to formal induction programmes; 76% work in schools with access to informal induction; and 22% work in schools that only have programmes for teachers new to teaching. Fewer teachers report participation in induction and mentoring programmes than principals report the existence of such programmes

Are disadvantaged students given equal opportunities to learn mathematics?

Some 65% of socio-economically advantaged students reported that they know well or have often heard of the concept of quadratic function, on average across OECD countries; but only 43% of disadvantaged students so reported. On average across OECD countries, the 20% of students who are most exposed to pure mathematics tasks (equations) score, on the PISA mathematics test, the equivalent of almost two school years ahead of the 20% of students who are least exposed. Exposure to simple applied mathematics tasks is much less strongly associated with better performance. About 19% of the performance difference between socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students can be attributed to differences in familiarity with mathematics. In Austria and Korea, more than  30% of the performance gap between these two groups of students is related to differences in familiarity with mathematics. In other words, there are clear indications that disadvantaged students systematically receive mathematics instruction of lower quality than advantaged students

Subnational variations in educational attainment and labour market outcomes

Levels of educational attainment do not only vary among countries, but also within them. In many countries, people with tertiary education – usually the most skilled people – are more highly represented in the capital region. Regional employment rates in many countries vary more widely among adults without upper secondary education than among those with upper secondary education or higher. In many countries, the percentage of young people neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) is twice as high in some regions as in others

What are the benefits from early childhood education?

Early childhood education and care programmes (ECEC) have become more accessible in recent years, with high enrolment rates in both early childhood educational development and preprimary education. The educational results of students at the age of 15 may be partially explained by attendance at pre-primary education, which sharply decreases the likelihood of low performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Pre-primary education can play a strong role in promoting equality at an early age, particularly by targeting disadvantaged groups such as first- and second-generation immigrants. Assuring and monitoring the quality of programmes is key to guaranteeing that early childhood education and care has a positive impact on both equity and performance in education

PISA 2015 : resultados clave

Singapur supera en ciencias al resto de países/economías participantes. Japón, Estonia, Finlandia y Canadá son, por este orden, los cuatro países de la OCDE que mejores resultados obtienen. Cerca del 8% de los estudiantes de los países de la OCDE (y el 24% de los estudiantes de Singapur) obtienen resultados excelentes en ciencias, es decir, alcanzan los niveles 5 o 6. En estos niveles, los estudiantes poseen las habilidades y conocimientos científicos suficientes como para aplicar lo que saben de manera creativa y autónoma en muy diversas situaciones, aunque les resulten desconocidas. Cerca del 20% de los estudiantes de los países de la OCDE rinde por debajo del nivel 2, considerado el umbral básico de competencias científicos. En el nivel 2, los estudiantes pueden recurrir a contenidos y procedimientos científicos básicos que conocen para identificar una explicación apropiada, interpretar datos y reconocer la cuestión que trata un experimento simple. Todos los estudiantes deberían alcanzar el nivel 2 de competencias al concluir la educación obligatoria. En la mayoría de los países para los que se dispone de datos comparables, el rendimiento medio de los estudiantes en ciencias se ha mantenido prácticamente inalterado desde 2006. Sin embargo, los resultados medios en ciencias mejoraron entre 2006 y 2015 en Colombia, Israel, Macao (China), Portugal, Catar y Rumanía. Durante este periodo, en Macao (China), Portugal y Catar incrementó la proporción de estudiantes con resultados iguales o superiores al nivel 5, a la vez que se redujo la proporción de estudiantes con rendimientos inferiores al nivel de competencias básicas (nivel 2). • Aunque las diferencias por género en ciencias suelen ser pequeñas de media, en 33 países y economías hay un mayor porcentaje de alumnos que de alumnas con un nivel excelente. Finlandia es el único país en el que las chicas tienen más probabilidades de alcanzar un nivel excelente que los chicos. De media, en los países de la OCDE, el 25% de los chicos y el 24% de las chicas declaró querer dedicarse a una profesión relacionada con las ciencias. Pero chicos y chicas suelen pensar en trabajar en distintos ámbitos de la ciencia: con más frecuencia que los chicos, las chicas se ven como profesionales de la salud; y prácticamente en todos los países, estos aspiran a ser informáticos, científicos o ingenieros más a menudo que las chicas. Cerca del 20% de los estudiantes de los países de la OCDE no obtiene, de media, las competencias lectoras básicas. Esta proporción se ha mantenido estable desde 2009. De media, en los países de la OCDE, la diferencia en lectura a favor de las niñas disminuyó 12 puntos en la prueba PISA entre 2009 y 2015: el rendimiento de los chicos mejoró, particularmente entre aquellos con mejores resultados, mientras que el de las chicas empeoró, sobre todo entre aquellas con peores resultados. • Más de uno de cada cuatro estudiantes en Pekín-Shanghái-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China), Hong Kong (China), Singapur y China Taipéi logra un nivel excelente en matemáticas, lo que significa que pueden enfrentarse a tareas que les exijan formular situaciones complejas de manera matemática mediante representaciones simbólicas