Top Class: The OECD Education Policy Podcast | Teachers, PISA, Students

When factual information comes under attack, societies head into Orwellian waters. OECD’s Andreas Schleicher and Molly Lesher discuss disinformation and other forms of “untruths” and how to get the measure of a tenacious and elusive phenomenon. Societies can tackle harmful information through citizen- and AI-driven fact-checking and content tagging. Platforms can boost transparency and collaborate with governments to tamp down fake news and synthetic media. But the best defence of all is educating people to question and check information for themselves. Because for contemporary democracy to survive and thrive, it needs digitally literate citizens. Hosted by Clara Young and produced by Stephen Flynn.

Kim Kardashian has been apprenticing with two lawyers for the past few years to become a lawyer herself in California. Apprenticeships like Kardashian’s “reading law” and vocational education training are career pathways that not enough young people are considering when deciding on what to do after high school. And maybe they’re not thinking about what happens after graduation because schools aren’t getting them “career ready” enough. New analysis of national longitudinal datasets and 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data show that it’s good for job markets and young people’s life outcomes when students start thinking about their future early on. Specifically, students whose schools organised first-hand encounters with people from the work world can expect to experience less unemployment and a greater likelihood of better-paying and fulfilling careers. Anthony Mann, senior policy analyst in the OECD’s Education and Skills directorate, talks to us about career readiness, apprenticeships and vocational educational training. Host: Clara Young Producer: Ilse Pacheco Sánchez

After the immediate needs of food, medical and psychosocial care, and housing, comes education. According to the UNHCR and UNICEF, “education for refugee children is arguably the best means available to help them, here and now, and to transform their futures.” Estonia is one of the countries on the front line for refugees fleeing the war. We talk to Viivian Jõemets, Chief Expert at the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, specialising in language learning and migration, and OECD analyst Lucie Cerna, specialising in education and refugees, about how to best continue schooling and vocational training for refugee children and teenagers. Host: Clara Young Producer: Ilse Sánchez Pacheco

Estonia was the top performing European country in PISA 2018 in reading, math and science. And it’s done this with an education budget that is 30 % lower than the OECD average. Does digital strategy have something to do with Estonia’s success story? Estonia’s Ambassador-at-large for education, Birgit Lao, explains. Host: Clara Young; Producer: Ilse Sánchez Pacheco

Iceland has topped global charts on gender equality for nearly a decade. One of the country’s more radical approaches to breaking gender stereotypes is a school method called Hjalli. Margrét Pála Ólafsdóttir opened the first Hjalli pre-school in 1989. Here, children play with open-ended toys, wear school uniforms and use gender-neutral learning materials. More unusually, girls and boys have separate classes throughout most of the day. In 2006, Margrét Pála Ólafsdóttir received The Knight’s Cross of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon from the President of Iceland for innovation in education. She tell us what she thinks it takes to undo children’s gender biases. Host: Clara Young; Producer: Ilse Sánchez Pacheco

“Why is the sky blue?” “Why do people get sick?” “Why aren’t there any more dinosaurs?” Sometimes it feels like children never stop asking questions. And they shouldn’t. A recent OECD International Early Learning and Child Wellbeing study shows that children who are curious have stronger language and number skills, and better self-control. So how do we keep students curious and creative even after they’ve outgrown kindergarten? Rowena Phair, senior analyst at the OECD, and Mitch Resnick, Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, discuss. Host: Clara Young; Producer: Ilse Sánchez Pacheco

People who graduate from university have on average better health, better life expectancy, and better earnings than those who don’t. But many students just can’t afford higher education, especially in countries where there’s less public money going into grants, bursaries and tuition waivers. With higher education budgets possibly tightening, where will the money come from? Lorraine Dearden, Professor of Economics and Social Statistics in the Social Research Institute at University College London talks about how student loans are handled in a number of countries and why, just like free lunches, there’s no such thing as free tuition. Host: Clara Young, Editors: Taline Shahinian & Ilse Sánchez Pacheco

In the OECD’s PISA survey of 66 countries in 2018, 88% of high-school principals reported that climate change was covered in their school’s curriculum. But it was Italy that was the first country in the world to make climate change coursework mandatory in all public schools. As Italy’s Minister of Education, University and Research in 2019, Lorenzo Fioramonti drove Italy’s climate education reform. Nita Seng is a middle-school math and science teacher in the United States and co-director of Subject to Climate. She gives us the teacher’s point of view on reforming school curricula to integrate climate education. Host: Clara Young, Producer: Taline Shahinian. Learn more about the OECD's Global Teaching Insights work on climate action here: bit.ly/GTIclimate

Are schools teaching students enough about climate change? And are they empowering them to do something about it? In PISA 2018, an average of 88% of high-school principals in 66 countries reported that climate change was covered in the school curriculum. But maybe this needs to come earlier. We hear from Shreya KC, 23, from Solukhumbu, Nepal. Shreya was a delegate at COP25 in Madrid, Spain in 2019, an organiser of the Mock Cop initiative in 2020, and is currently the National Network Coordinator for Nepalese Youth for Climate Action. Also in this podcast is Eleanor May, 18, from Ivybridge, England. Eleanor is a campaigner for the UK’s Teach the Future, a movement by secondary and tertiary education students to improve climate change education in the UK. Host: Clara Young, Producer: Taline Shahinian.

Alperton Community School is in one of London’s lowest-income areas, Brent. Almost half of the children there live below the poverty line. And yet this secondary school is in the top 1-5% of the country in terms of qualifications and accreditations. What’s Alperton’s secret sauce? Well, to start with, its teachers. Andria Zafirakou teaches arts and textiles at Alperton. In 2018, she won the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher prize – what is essentially the Nobel prize in teaching. Host: Clara Young; Producer: Taline Shahinian.