Skills and wage inequality across labour markets

by Dirk Van Damme
Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress division, Directorate for Education and Skills

Mean monthly earnings in USD (using Purchasing Power Parities) of individuals, by literacy proficiency level, gender, age and educational attainment (2012)

In a completely open labour market, earnings from employment would compensate individuals for their contribution to the organisation’s economic success. The price put on one’s labour also depends on the abundance or scarcity of the individual’s specific set of skills in the market. But economic price-setting mechanisms do not operate in a vacuum, and are heavily influenced by political and institutional factors that, in themselves, are often the outcome of long histories of social conflict and compromise.

Governments tend to regulate minimum wages and other framework conditions, while sectoral collective labour agreements set rules for salary increases by seniority or educational qualifications. Such arrangements serve to set minimum wages and living standards for vulnerable workers. In fact, some of the rationales underlying wage differentials across the labour market are increasingly scrutinised for their harmful social impact. For example, several countries are debating the social and economic impact of regulations favouring older workers simply because of their age.

It has now been well established that wage inequality has increased. Increasing social inequality also seems to have an adverse impact on growth. Even if inequality and well-being should be seen as multi-dimensional, incorporating many more factors than just wages, the income generated from employment lies at the core of social inequality. The latest Education Indicators in Focus, presenting data from the Survey of Adult Skills (a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, or PIAAC), presents a snapshot of how different factors, such as gender, age, educational attainment and, especially, skills, affected the distribution of wages in 2012. The snapshot doesn’t provide trend data, but shows where we are now.

As the chart above illustrates, on average across the 24 countries and regions that participated in the survey, the wage differences between various categories are significant. Gender, age and educational attainment all have an impact on wages. Labour markets and wage-setting systems tend to closely reflect educational qualifications, often through institutional frameworks. Wages also reward professional experience and seniority of older workers. And the gender bias in wages partly echoes different labour market participation patterns between males and females.

But the most interesting finding of the chart is the very significant impact that skills have on earnings within each category of the gender, age and education variables. Skills differentiate wages to an almost similar degree within both sexes. With age we see a different pattern: as people grow older, their wages depend more and more on their skills level. But the wage differentiation only happens at the top of the skills distribution: higher skilled older workers earn higher wages than younger colleagues, while lower skilled workers don’t see their wages increase with age.

The interaction between educational qualifications and skills in setting wages again, is of a different nature. Labour market arrangements are still heavily based on educational qualifications. But educational qualifications do not always accurately describe the qualification-holder’s level of skills. Wages vary widely, even within each qualification level, by the actual skills people have; this is especially evident among tertiary-educated workers. If an individual is not equipped with a set of skills commensurate with his or her qualification, then the qualification in itself does not seem to secure a high wage. Better-skilled individuals with a mid-level qualification earn more than low-skilled tertiary graduates. At the same time, tertiary educated workers with low skills still get a higher wage than mid-skilled workers with lower qualifications.

Several countries are in the process of reforming their labour market arrangements. In general, such reforms aim to open up labour markets with more flexible arrangements, while at the same time protecting vulnerable workers and containing the overall level of wage inequality. In this context, the question whether skills and experience should have a higher impact on wages than seniority, gender or educational qualifications is becoming a critically important policy issue.

Links: 
Education Indicators in Focus, issue No. 27 by Eric Charbonnier and Simon Normandeau
Education Indicators in Focus, issue No. 27, French version
OECD Skills Outlook 2013
On this topic, visit:
Education Indicators in Focus: www.oecd.org/education/indicators 
On the OECD’s education indicators, visit:
Education at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators: www.oecd.org/edu/eag.htm
Chart source: © OECD

The efficiency of Italian schools in an international perspective

by Tommaso Agasisti,
Politecnico di Milano School of Management, and TJ Alexander Fellow at OECD

Performance in PISA and (Data Envelope Analysis) efficiency scores

Budget cuts in public services are today common across countries. For schools, as everywhere else, we constantly hear calls for ways to do more with less. Efficiency, it seems, has crept up to the top of the policy agenda. The question is whether the quality of learning is suffering due budget cuts, and if the quality of learning is compromised by fewer resources.

In most countries, educational results have not progressed in line with the increases in resources used by schools. Large scale international assessments, such as PISA, opens the door to new research on efficiency. Using PISA 2012 data, we estimated efficiency for almost 9 000 schools operating in 30 countries. In this context, efficiency is defined in a technical sense: inputs are the number of teachers per student, the number of computers per teacher (measures that provide us with an idea of the amount of human and material resources available to the school) and students’ average socio-economic background (a measure of the environment the school operates and the family background of the students that attend the school), while outputs are measured by the average test scores in mathematics and reading of the students in the school. Using international data, the efficiency at school level is not determined only by national efficiency standards in a particular country, but by schools in all countries.

The results highlight that among the 30 countries being examined, the average efficiency of school stands at 0.73. This means that PISA test scores could be raised by 27% if resources were used at the optimal level of efficiency (those attained by top performing schools for each combination of resources). For Italian schools, the average efficiency score is 0.71, which implies that on average, the PISA scores could be raised by 29%. By way of comparison, the country in which efficiency scores are the highest is Singapore (0.84), followed by two other Asian countries (Korea and Japan), then Poland and Estonia (see Figure above).

The empirical analysis compares Italian schools with a sample of schools in other countries Many Italian schools are comparable with the best schools in the world, while others struggle with underwhelming results (both with regards to achievement and efficiency). One of the most striking findings of this research is the amount of variation in efficiency across schools within each country. In this sense, the “typical, average” Italian school simply does not exist.

The PISA data allows less efficient schools to observe the characteristics of more efficient ones, by studying their organisation and activities, regardless of the country where they operate. Drawing inspiration from these data, each school can adopt the mix of resources, practices and processes that they consider most suitable for improving their operations (in terms of achievement scores and efficiency). In addition, by collecting information at different points in time, schools can monitor improvements and its determinants, eventually adjusting activities and strategies if satisfactory results are not achieved.

An evaluation system of this kind is no substitute for the experience of teachers and principals, rather it can stimulate them, and other stakeholders, into considering the measurable characteristics of their work without renouncing to the more intangible aspects such as cultural and educational values.

Links: 
PISA 2012 findings
PISA 2012 country note - Italy

Original version of this article, published in Italian
Chart source: @OECD

What works best for learning in schools

by Cassandra Davis,
Communications Manager, Directorate for Education and Skills

Professor John Hattie is held in high esteem as an education researcher and was called “possibly the world’s most influential education academic” by the Times Educational Supplement in 2012. He rose to international prominence with the publication of his two books Visible Learning (2008) and Visible Learning for Teachers (2011). Since March 2011, Professor Hattie has been Director of the Melbourne Educational Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Hattie is also the Chair of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). Communications Manager Cassandra Davis asked him about his research of what works best for learning in schools.

Cassandra Davis: Building a force of effective school leaders demands that teachers be open to assessments and professional development. How do you convince teachers to avail themselves of these opportunities – particularly those who may resist change?

John Hattie: Throughout Australia, we have teachers who are performing at extraordinarily high levels, which essentially means they are creating maximum learning impact with their students.

All too often, such high-impact teaching is almost invisible to the colleagues of those teachers and to the students’ parents. The doors literally close on those classrooms and the teachers just get on with their teaching at a high level, but largely in isolation. 

Despite this tendency, we do know what highly effective teaching practice looks like across a range of school settings. That high impact practice is described in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. They set out clearly what the profession and the community should expect teachers to know and be able to do at different stages of their careers.

When teachers see that any evaluation of their work and impact is underpinned by a set of transparent standards that make sense to them, and where the intent (and result) of any such evaluation is improvement and professional development, I think that school leaders will find teachers are open, receptive and active in their own growth – certainly, that is my experience.

CD: On the one hand, your organisation strives to create competent, responsive school leaders – presumably also from the ranks of teachers – but you also stress the importance of keeping the best teachers in the classroom, free of school-management responsibilities. In your experience, what is the best way to encourage the most innovative and effective teachers to remain in the classroom? Is it largely – or even only – a matter of raising their pay?

JH: In the fairly recent past, it was all too common for excellent classroom teachers to be “promoted” into positions of middle administrative authority and divorced from what they were truly great at doing.

While it’s totally legitimate and desirable for some teachers to aspire to school leadership, we should not effectively penalise those high-performing teachers who wish to go on being superlative at what they do in the classroom.

The way to make the classroom into a real and viable choice for talented and ambitious people is to publicly accord high levels of esteem to the expert classroom teacher. In the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, there are four teaching career stages: Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead. The first two are compulsory to achieve and maintain registration and ongoing professional status. The second two are voluntary, increasingly demanding and highly aspirational.

To be certified as a Highly Accomplished or Lead Teacher on the basis of explicit criteria and demonstrable achievement tells the profession and the wider community something quite profound about the nature of an individual’s talents.

It’s important to have teachers who are paid in accordance with their considerable skills and responsibilities. This is much more important and realisable than payment based on test scores.  The profession needs to be financially attractive enough to attract and retain talented people, so when it comes to salaries, relativities with other comparable professions need to be taken into account. The important issue is rewarding skills and expertise.

CD: Our latest TALIS report shows that 66% of upper secondary teachers in Australia work in schools whose principals reported that more than 10% of the students come from disadvantaged homes. How do you prepare teachers to meet this particular challenge?

JH: As educators, we cannot wave a magic wand over the problem of socio-economic disadvantage. Students do not leave hunger or poverty at the school gate. But what we can do is to help ensure that the principal who leads the school and the teacher who conducts the class are highly skilled and maximise their impact on these students.

AITSL’s work is driven by the knowledge that the greatest in-school influence on student achievement is the quality of teaching.

That might sound like the simplest truism, but in the absence of first-hand experience or knowledge about classroom practices, some parents tend to make choices for their child’s education based on obvious but relatively unimportant proxies, such as manicured grounds, whiz-bang facilities or social cachet.

The support of school leaders and the system for these skilled teachers is a must. A key is how to find time (and thus resources) for teachers to work together in planning in light of their impact, work together to evaluate their impact and collaborate in ensuring all students get the minimum year’s growth for a year’s input.

CD: You mention that AITSL is becoming increasingly engaged with your south and east Asian neighbours. To what extent do you believe that the methods and underlying policies you use to build more effective teachers and school leaders can be exported to cultures and education systems that are fundamentally different from Australia’s?

JH: I am put in mind of the famous opening lines of Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” That is to say, there are certain features that characterise successful schools, even while the challenges they struggle to overcome may be quite different.

Successful schools invariably have good leaders. They also have a preponderance or a critical mass of good teachers who understand their impact on student learning and work to become better practitioners. And those schools are led by school leaders who have the skills to raise discussions about what impact means in this school, how to evaluate the magnitude of impact and ensure that all students share this high impact.

Likewise, good schools have a preponderance of genuinely engaged students, supported by interested parents who value education. I suspect all this is true for “happy families” of schools from Australia to our high-achieving Asian neighbours and beyond.

While the “unhappy family” problems faced by other countries’ schools may well be radically different from those faced by Australian schools, there is nevertheless an essential and shared foundation required in the shape of superlatively skilled and high-impact teachers and school leaders.

Links:
New Insights from TALIS 2013
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership
Education Policy Outlook Country Note: Australia
Photo credit: @Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL)

Trouble with homework

by Marilyn Achiron
Editor, Directorate for Education and Skills

It’s sometimes hard to tell who has more trouble with homework: students or their parents. PISA results show that homework, itself, may inadvertently perpetuate a problem that goes far beyond spoiling a student’s evening or a parent’s self-esteem. As this month’s PISA in Focus explains, homework may widen the performance gap between students from different socio-economic backgrounds.

Students everywhere are assigned homework by their teachers, and across OECD countries in 2012, 15-year-old students reported that they spend almost five hours per week doing homework. (If you think that’s a lot, it’s actually one hour less per week than the average reported in 2003 – and 9 hours less per week than students in Shanghai-China reported in 2012.)

The problem lies not so much in the amount of time spent doing homework, but in differences in the amount of time spent doing homework that are related to students’ socio-economic status. In every country and economy that participated in PISA 2012, advantaged students spend more time doing homework than disadvantaged students. In OECD countries, for example, advantaged students spend 5.7 hours per week doing homework, on average, while disadvantaged students spend an average of 4.1 hours per week. PISA also finds that students who attend schools whose student body is predominantly composed of advantaged students, and students who attend schools located in urban areas, reported spending more time doing homework than students who attend schools with a more disadvantaged student body and schools located in rural areas.

What accounts for these differences? PISA cannot establish cause-and-effect links, but results from previous PISA studies suggest that advantaged students are more likely than their disadvantaged peers to have a quiet place to study at home and parents who convey positive messages about schooling. The connection between the socio-economic profile of a school’s student population and the amount of time students spend on homework might reflect differences in teachers’ expectations for their students and teachers’ perceptions of their students’ capacity to study independently.

All of this has an impact on student performance. Students who spend more time doing homework tend to score higher in the PISA mathematics test. And if you compare students from similar socio-economic backgrounds who attend similarly resourced schools, those who attend schools where students, in general, spend more time doing homework perform better in mathematics than those who attend schools whose students devote less time to homework. In fact, PISA results show that the net payoff in mathematics performance from attending a school where more homework is assigned, in general, is particularly large – 17 score points (the equivalent of nearly 6 months of schooling) or more per extra hour of homework – in Hong Kong-China, Japan, Macao-China and Singapore.

One good way to make sure that homework does not perpetuate differences in performance that are related to students’ socio-economic status is for schools and teachers to encourage struggling and disadvantaged students to complete their homework. This could involve providing facilities at school so that disadvantaged students have a quiet, comfortable place to work, and/or offering to help parents motivate their children to finish their homework before going out with friends or surfing the web. The homework still has to get done; but maybe students and their parents will find it a little less troublesome.

Links: 
PISA 2012 Findings
Does homework perpetuate inequities in education?
PISA in Focus No.46 (French version)
Photo credit: Student connection / @Shutterstock

Shedding light on teaching and learning across education levels

by Katarzyna Kubacka
Analyst, Directorate for Education and Skills 

Looking at teachers at all levels of education, we learn that the majority of teachers are women. In all countries, the percentage of male teachers is particularly low in primary schools where teaching is still seen as a women’s job.  As a result young children are missing out on role models of both sexes.

New insights from TALIS 2013: Teaching and learning in primary and upper secondary education reveals that women constitute more than 65% of the work force on average, in all six countries that surveyed primary teachers, ranging from 67% in Mexico to 86% in Poland. In contrast, at least 30% of upper secondary teachers across all ten surveyed countries are male and the percentage of female teachers ranges from 48% in Denmark to 68% in Poland. Interestingly, this gender imbalance at the level of teachers does not translate into the same distribution of leadership positions for men and women. School principals in many countries tend to be male on average – a fact that’s surprising considering that most principals are former teachers, and most teachers are female.

The report marks the first time TALIS has expended its scope beyond lower secondary schools to gather information on teaching and learning at both primary and upper secondary levels of education, in a total of 11 countries  around the world.  The report also focuses on schools’ human resources and general resource shortages across all three levels of education.

It reveals that there are some important differences in terms of how school resources are distributed across the education levels and also across schools with different socio-economic composition. In particular, TALIS provides information on perceived shortages in terms of resources such as qualified teachers, computers for instruction, support personnel: shortages which principals deem hinder the provision of quality education in their schools. Unfortunately these perceived shortages tend to be even more pronounced in schools with larger proportions of students from disadvantaged homes – and this trend is seen across the education levels.

One implication of this new set of TALIS information is that education systems need to put more effort into assuring an equitable distribution of resources within and across education levels. Effective teaching and learning requires that all schools, from primary up to upper secondary, have the tools they require to best equip students with the skills they will require to successfully weather the storm of their rapidly changing environments.

Links:

New insights from TALIS 2013: Teaching and learning in primary and upper secondary education

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey

A Teacher’s Guide to TALIS 2013

Teaching in Focus No. 8 : What TALIS reveals about teachers across education levels, by Katarzyna Kubacka
Teaching In Focus No. 8: Que nous apprend TALIS sur les enseignants des différents niveaux d’enseignement ?

International Summit on the Teaching Profession, Banff, Alberta, on March 29–30, 2015

Photo credit: Human resources officer (HR) choose woman employee standing out of the crowd / Shutterstock

JANGAN PERNAH BERHENTI BERDO'A

Seorang Dokter Ahli Bedah terkenal bernama Dr. Ishan telihat tergesa-gesa menuju airport. Ia berencana menghadiri Seminar Dunia dalam bidang kedokteran, yang akan membahas penemuan terbesarnya di bidang kedokteran. Setelah perjalanan pesawat sekitar 1 jam, tiba-tiba diumumkan bahwa pesawat mengalami gangguan dan harus mendarat di airport terdekat. Karena merasa diburu waktu, ia kemudian mendatangi pusat informasi. “Saya ini dokter specialis, tiap menit ada orang yang mesti saya bantu, dan sekarang kalian meminta saya menunggu pesawat diperbaiki dalam 16 jam?” kata Dr Ishan.

Petugas bandara pun menjawab, “Wahai dokter, jika Anda terburu-buru, Anda bisa menyewa mobil, tujuan Anda tidak jauh lagi dari sini, kira-kira dengan mobil bisa ditempuh dengan waktu 3 jam. Dr. Ishan setuju dengan usul pegawai tersebut dan menyewa mobil. Baru berjalan 5 menit, tiba-tiba cuaca mendung, disusul dengan hujan besar disertai petir yang mengakibatkan jarak pandang sangat pendek.

Setelah berlalu hampir 2 jam, mereka tersadar bahwa mereka tersesat dan terasa kelelahan. Terlihat sebuah rumah kecil tidak jauh dari hadapannya, dihampirilah rumah tersebut dan mereka mulai mengetuk pintunya.
Dalam rumah itu terdengar suara seorang wanita tua. “Silahkan masuk, siapa ya?” kata wanita tua itu sambil membukakan pintu rumahnya. “Kami tersesat bu, kalau boleh, bisa pinjam telefonnya?” pinta Pak Ishan. Ibu itu tersenyum dan berkata, “Telefon apa Nak? Apa kamu tidak sadar ada dimana? Disini tidak ada listrik, apalagi telefon. Lebih baik tunggu saja di dalam, Nak. Hujannya semakin lebat” ajak wanita tua itu.

Mereka pun masuk. Mereka diberi segelas teh hangat dan beberapa hidangan alakadarnya. Dr. Ishan mengucapkan terima kasih kepada ibu itu, lalu memakan hidangan, sementara ibu itu sholat dan berdo’a serta perlahan-lahan mendekati seorang anak kecil yang terbaring tak bergerak diatas kasur disisi ibu tersebut, dan dia terlihat gelisah diantara tiap sholat. Ibu tersebut melanjutkan sholatnya dengan do’a yang panjang. Dokter mendatanginya dan berkata,”Demi Allah, ibu telah membuat saya kagum dengan keramahan dan kemuliaan akhlak ibu, semoga Allah menjawab do’a-do’a ibu”.

“Nak, kamu itu ibnu sabil yang sudah diwasiatkan Allah untuk dibantu. Sedangkan do’a-do’a saya sudah dijawab Allah semuanya, kecuali satu” pungkas sang wanita. Dr. Ishan kemudian bertanya, “Apa yang ibu pinta?” Dengan suara lirih wanita itu menjawab, “Anak ini adalah cucu saya, dia yatim piatu. Dia menderita sakit yang tidak bisa tertolong oleh dokter-dokter yang ada disini. Mereka berkata kepada saya ada seorang dokter ahli bedah yang bisa membantunya, katanya namanya Dr. Ishan, akan tetapi dia tinggal jauh dari sini. Saya tidak mungkin membawa anak ini ke sana, dan saya khawatir terjadi apa-apa di jalan. Makanya saya berdo’a kepada Allah agar menyembuhkannya".

Menangislah Dr. Ishan dan berkata sambil terisak, “Allahu Akbar, Laa haula wala quwwata illa billah. Demi Allah, sungguh do’a ibu telah membuat pesawat rusak dan harus diperbaiki lama serta membuat hujan petir dan menyesatkan kami, hanya untuk mengantarkan saya ke tempat ibu secara cepat dan tepat. Saya lah Dr. Ishan Bu. Sungguh Allah Ta’ala telah menciptakan sebab seperti ini kepada hamba-Nya yang mu’min dengan do’a. Ini adalah perintah Allah kepada saya untuk membantu anak ini. Masya Allah… Tabarakallah…”

[sumber: Ibrahim Al Hanif]

MISTERI DIBALIK "HOLOCAUST" YAHUDI

EROPAH Anti-Semit, atau sikap anti-Yahudi tengah menimpa bangsa Yahudi. Secara serentak, masyarakat dunia menyatakan penolakan terhadap bangsa yang satu ini. Krisis ekonomi global turut pula mepengaruhi, bahkan Yahudi dituding sebagai penyebab semua kekacauan yang ada sekarang ini. Dari segala hujatan dan penolakan itu, Yahudi kembali menggunakan lagu lama untuk membela dirinya; Holocaust.

Apa itu HOLOCAUST ?

Holocaust adalah peristiwa pemusnahan hampir seluruh Yahudi Eropa oleh Nazi Jerman dan kelompoknya selama Perang Dunia II. Orang Yahudi sering menyebut peristiwa ini sebagai Shoah, istilah Ibrani yang berarti malapetaka atau bencana hebat. Holocaust sendiri berasal dari bahasa Yunani, holo yang artinya seluruh, dan caustos yang berarti terbakar.Secara asal, holocaust artinya adalah persembahan api atau pengorbanan religius dengan pembakaran. Konon, Nazi Jerman dipercaya telah memusnahkan sekitar 5,6 sampai 5,9 juta orang Yahudi, setidaknya angka inilah yang selalu didengung-dengungkan dan dikampanyekan oleh Yahudi. Holocaust tidak lepas dari kebencian Jerman kepada Yahudi. Perang Dunia I (PD I) menyisakan Jerman sebagai pecundang, dan Jerman tanpa tedeng aling-aling menyebut Yahudi sebagai pengkhianat yang membuat negara Bavarian itu hancur. Hal itu diperkuat dengan kejadian pada akhir PD I, sekelompok Yahudi mengobarkan revolusi ala Bolshevik Soviet di negara bagian Jerman, Bavaria. Kontan, Yahudi dianggap sebagai bangsa yang berbahaya. Ketika Nazi naik panggung politik, kebijakan yang menekan Yahudi pun diterapkan. Hak-hak Yahudi dicabut, harta benda mereka disita, rencana untuk mengusir mereka keluar Jerman dirancang, sampai, konon, pemusnahan fisik yang berarti pembantaian.

Musim semi 1941, Nazi mulai membantai Yahudi di Uni Soviet yang dianggap sebagai sumber hidup Bolshevisme. Orang Yahudi disuruh menggali lubang kubur mereka sendiri, kemudian ditembak mati. Musim gugur tahun yang sama, Nazi meluaskan pembantaian ke Polandia dan Serbia. Kamp pembantaian untuk Yahudi mulai dibangun di Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen. Kamp itu dilengkapi kamar gas dan tungku besar. Mereka menggunakan kamar gas untuk membunuh orang Yahudi. Beberapa orang Yahudi dimasukkan ke dalam kamar gas, kemudian gas Zyklon-B, sebuah gas pestisida berbahan dasar asam hidrosianik, dialirkan.

Tapi apa memang seperti itu? Pada 1964, Paul Rassinier, korban holocaust yang selamat, menerbitkan The Drama of European Jews yang mempertanyakan apa yang diyakini dari Holocaust selama ini. Dalam bukunya, ia mengklaim bahwa sebenarnya tak ada kebijakan pemusnahan massal oleh Nazi terhadap Yahudi, tak ada kamar gas, dan jumlah korban tidak sebesar itu.

Arthur Butz menulis The Hoax of the 20th Century: The case against the presumed extermination of European Jewry pada 1976. Ia mengklaim bahwa gas Zyklon-B tidak digunakan untuk membunuh orang tapi untuk proses penghilangan bakteri pada pakaian.

Winston Churchill menulis 6 jilid karya monumentalnya, The Second World War, tanpa menyebut tentang program Nazi untuk membantai orang Yahudi. Eisenhower menulir memoarnya, Crusade in Europe, juga tak menyebut tentang kamar gas.

Mengenai kematian massal di Auschwitz, Robert Faurisson, profesor literatur di University of Lyons 2 mengklaim tipus-lah yang membunuh para tawanan itu, sama sekali bukan kamar gas. Seorang ahli konstruksi dan instalasi alat eksekusi dari AS, Fred Leuchter, pergi ke Auschwitz dan mengadakan penyelidikan serta tes di tempat itu.

Kesimpulannya adalah kamar gas di Auschwitz tidak mungkin digunakan untuk membunuh orang. Setelah orang-orang ini mempertanyakan kebenaran holocaust, gelombang kritisasi dan penyangkalan terhadap apa yang terjadi di holocaust mulai bangkit. Mereka yang meragukan kebenaran holocaust ini menyebut dirinya sebagai revisionis. Memang betul, Nazi memperlakukan Yahudi demikian buruk, kejam, dan bengis. Nazi pernah memberlakukan pencabutan hak-hak Yahudi, penawanan di ghetto, kerja paksa, penyitaan harta benda dan deportasi dari Jerman.

Namun, sampai saat ini, tak pernah ditemukan satupun dokumen atau masterplan tentang pemusnahan Yahudi di Eropa. Satu lagi, Jerman juga dengan secara tegas menyatakan bahwa jumlah 5,9 atau 6 juta korban merupakan kebohongan. Kamar gas memang ditemukan di Auschwitz. Namun, para revisionis mengklaim bahwa kamar gas beserta Zyklon-B tidak mungkin digunakan untuk eksekusi manusia, melainkan untuk pengasapan pakaian agar bakteri-bakteri di pakaian mati. Dari prosedur kesehatan inilah, mitos pembunuhan dengan kamar gas muncul.

Museum Auschwitz, museum tentang holocaust, selama 50 tahun mengklaim bahwa 4 juta manusia dibunuh di sana. Sekarang mereka malah mengklaim mungkin hanya 1 juta korban. Revisi klaim ini pun tidak didukung oleh dokumentasi 1 juta orang tersebut. Hal yang penting lagi adalah jika memang ada pembunuhan massal di Polandia terhadap Yahudi tentu Palang Merah, Paus, pemerintah sekutu, negara netral, pemimpin terkemuka waktu itu akan tahu dan menyebutnya dan mengecamnya.

Yahudi tentu saja mengambil keuntungan dari kebohongan besar mereka ini. Mereka yang merasa menjadi korban kemudian menuntut tanah Palestina, terus meminta ganti rugi kepada Jerman, dan meminta dana pembangunan dari negara lain, dan senantiasa memelihara isu Holocaust. Tak pelak lagi, Israel selalu bersembunyi di balik Holocaust atas semua aksi keji dan biadabnya. 

[Berbagai Sumber]

KENAPA YAHUDI MEMBENCI ISLAM ?

HITLER adalah sejarah panjang bagaimana bangsa Yahudi diperlakukan di dunia ini—jika sejarah versi itu bisa dipercayai, tentu saja. Karena efek pembantaian yang dilakukan oleh Hitler terhadap Yahudi nyatanya adalah tanah Palestina, sesuatu yang sama sekali jauh dari Jerman. Apakah Hitler kejam? Apakah Hitler seperti yang diberitakan oleh Amerika? Dan kenapa Hitler membinasakan Yahudi ?

Barat dan Amerika telah membuat citra Hitler di mata dunia sebagai sosok yang bengis. Di film manapun di Amerika tentang Yahudi, maka Hitler selalu membantai Yahudi sampai ke akar akarnya, film-film dibuat agar seluruh dunia tumbuh rasa sayang kepada Yahudi dan membenci Hitler. Jika Anda “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” maka Anda akan merasa iba kepada Yahudi.

Hitler dulu pernah berkata, “Bisa saja saya memusnahkan semua Yahudi di dunia, tapi saya sisakan sedikit saja yang hidup. Agar Anda tahu alasan saya membunuh mereka”. Sekarang kita bisa kita lihat apa yang sudah diperbuat Yahudi pada dunia, terutama pada negeri penuh sengketa, Palestina. Mereka membunuh masyarakat Palestina sebagaimana mudahnya kita membunuh nyamuk.

Sejak kecil, anak-anak Yahudi didoktrin untuk membenci orang Islam. Ayat-ayat Talmud konon menghalalkan mereka membunuh orang-orang selain berdarah Yahudi. Mereka bangga dengan darah Yahudinya, mereka menganggap rendah orang yang bukan Yahudi. Semua orang non-Yahudi dari segala ras dan agama menurut Talmud adalah “sampah”, begitu menurut kitab Talmud. Menurut pandangan mereka, secara mendasar kaum Yahudi itu lebih unggul atas ras mana pun, dan mengenai hal itu ditegaskan berulangkali dalam bentuk yang sangat ekstrem oleh Shneur Zalman dari Lyadi.

Pendiri Lubavitcher-Hasidisme itu mengajarkan, bahwa ada perbedaan hakiki antara jiwa orang Yahudi dengan jiwa kaum ‘goyyim’ (Kaum selain Yahudi). Bahwasanya hanyalah jiwa orang Yahudi yang di dalamnya terdapat dan memancarkan cahaya kehidupan ilahiyah. Sedangkan pada jiwa kaum ‘goyyim’, Shneur melanjutnya menyatakan, “Sama sekali berbeda, karena terciptanya memang lebih inferior. Jiwa mereka sepenuhnya jahat, tanpa mungkin diselamatkan dengan cara apa pun”.

Jadi karena tidak bisa diselamatkan, semua kaum selain Yahudi halal darahnya untuk dibunuh. Diyakini, ajaran-ajaran kitab inilah yang menyebabkan bangsa Yahudi tidak mempunyai hati nurani. Kitab-kitab ini diajarkan dari sekolah dasar, sehingga sejak kecil anak-anak Yahudi yang masih polos membenci Islam, sehingga lama kelamaan kebencian itu mendarah daging dan membuat anak itu menjadi penghancur Islam. Jadi bukanlah suatu pemandangan yang aneh jika ada anak Yahudi yang tertangkap kamera berani menendang ibu muslimah Palestina.

“Orang-orang Yahudi dan Nasrani tidak akan senang kepadamu hingga kamu mengikuti agama mereka. Katakanlah: “Sesungguhnya petunjuk Allah itulah petunjuk (yang sebenarnya)”. Dan sesungguhnya jika kamu mengikuti kemauan mereka setelah pengetahuan datang kepadamu, maka Allah tidak lagi menjadi pelindung dan penolong bagimu,” QS. al-Baqarah (2) : 120).

[alfarish]

PROFESSOR YAHUDI MASUK ISLAM

Ketika James Frankel memberitahu ibunya bahwa ia sudah mausk Islam, reaksi ibunya sungguh kuat sekali. Dia menangis dan memandang ayah James seolah-olahnya bertanya, “Apa salah kita? Mengapa hal ini bisa terjadi?”. Sementara ayah James tampaknya lebih santai dalam menanganinya. Dia mungkin berpikir, “Anak saya adalah seorang komunis ketika berusia 13 tahun. Dia menjadi pengikut Skinhead ketika berusia 16 tahun. Dia melewati berbagai fase dalam kehidupannya, mungkin jadi Muslim juga hanya merupakan sebuah fase”. James menegaskan bahwa pendapat ayahnya itu salah. Bagi James, yang merupakan seorang profesor Yahudi itu, masuk Islam itu bukan sebuah fase. Ibunya yang tampaknya menyadari bahwa James serius dan tentunya reaksi dia adalah seseorang yang takut dan menyesal. Jadilah tahun-tahun pertama itu James masuk Islam sebagai tantangan besar baginya.

James terus berusaha untuk berkomunikasi dengan kedua orang tuanya. “Alhamdulillah, mereka dapat memahami saya dan sabar dalam hal ini. Pada mulanya memang ibu saya merasa bimbang. Dia takut saya berubah menjadi monster. Saya berusaha untuk membuktikan kepadanya bahwa setelah memeluk agama Islam, saya menjadi pelajar yang lebih baik dan anak yang lebih baik. Saya bukanlah seorang yang nakal sebelum Islam,” papar James.

James merasa, Islam telah menjadikannya sebagai orang yang lebih baik. “Setiap orang punya jalan mereka sendiri. Bagaimana mereka sampai ke sana dan malah ketika mereka memeluk Islam setiap orang punya cara yang berbeda dalam memahami jalan ini. Bagi saya, Islam banyak berkaitan dengan pembelajaran dan pengetahuan,” ujar James lagi. “Tujuan hidup yang utama dalam kehidupan dan Islam ialah untuk memperoleh pengetahuan; pengetahuan tentang diri kita, tentang dunia kita, tentang alam raya, dan pengetahuan hubungan akrab kita dengan Allah".

James berpendapat bahwa ia tidak akan menjadi seorang profesor andainya ia bukan seorang Muslim. “Saya bukanlah mengatakan bahwa setiap orang mesti menjadi profesor. Tetapi bagi saya menjadi profesor merupakan satu perjalanan pembelajaran dan pengajaran yang panjang. Di perjalanan tersebut, saya memperolehi kehormatan dan apresiasi dari agama lain juga yang dulunya saya tidak terpikir ia bisa dicapai jika saya tidak memeluk Islam,” demikian James.

Perlu waktu 20 tahun bagi James untuk menjadi seorang Muslim. Nasihatnya kepada Muslim baru atau mungkin mereka yang telah menganut Islam haruslah bersabar dan melihat apa yang dikaruniakan Allah; bukan dengan takut tetapi dengan cinta dan harapan.

[islampos/onislam]

Membaca Surat Al-Kahfi pada Hari Jum'at

“Barangsiapa membaca surah Al-Kahfi pada hari Jum’at, niscaya ia akan diterangi oleh cahaya antara dua Jumat,” (HR Hakim 3349).

Muaz Ibnu Anas Al-Juhari, Nabi SAW bersabda: “Siapa yang membaca dari Surah Al-Kahfi, maka jadilah baginya cahaya dari kepala hingga kakinya dan siapa yang membaca keseluruhannya, maka jadilah baginya cahaya antara langit dan bumi,” (HR Ahmad).

Rasulullah SAW Bersabda: “Barang siapa membaca Surah Al Kahfi pada hari Jum’at, maka Dajjal tidak bisa memudharatkannya,” (HR-Dailami).Nabi Muhammad SAW telah memerintahkan untuk membaca awal-awal surat Al Kahfi agar terlindung dari fitnah Dajjal. Dalam riwayat lain disebutkan akhir-akhir surat Al Kahfi yang dibaca. Intinya, surat Al Kahfi yang dibaca bisa awal atau akhir surat. Dan yang lebih sempurna adalah menghafal seluruh ayat dari surat tersebut.

Dari Abu Darda’, Nabi saw bersabda: “Barang siapa menghafal sepuluh ayat pertama dari surat Al Kahfi, maka ia akan terlindungi dari (fitnah) Dajjal,” (HR. Muslim).

Imam Nawawi ra berkata, “(Kenapa yang dianjurkan untuk dibaca adalah surat Al Kahfi?) Karena di awal surat tersebut terdapat ayat-ayat yang menakjubkan. Siapa yang mau merenungkannya, niscaya ia akan terlindungi dari fitnah Dajjal. Sebagaimana pula dalam akhir-akhir ayat surat tersebut, Allah berfirman, “Maka apakah orang-orang kafir menyangka bahwa mereka (dapat) mengambil (hamba-hamba-Ku menjadi penolong selain Aku?),” (QS. Al Kahfi: 102)” (Syarh Shahih Muslim, 6: 93).

Dan di antara waktu yang terbaik untuk membaca surat Al Kahfi adalah di hari Jum’at. 

[islampos/berbagai sumber]

Ternyata Tumbuhan Juga Bertasbih kepada Allah

Pada sebuah penelitian ilmiah yang diberitakan oleh sebuah majalah sains terkenal, Journal of Plant Molecular Biologies, menyebutkan bahwa sekelompok ilmuwan yang mengadakan penelitian mendapatkan suara halus yang keluar dari sebagian tumbuhan yang tidak bisa didengar oleh telinga biasa. Suara tersebut berhasil disimpan dan direkam dengan sebuah alat perekam tercanggih yang pernah ada.

Para ilmuwan selama hampir 3 tahun meneliti fenomena yang mencengangkan ini berhasil menganalisis denyutan atau detak suara tersebut sehingga menjadi isyarat-isyarat yang bersifat cahaya elektrik (kahrudhoiyah ) dengan sebuah alat canggih yang bernama Oscilloscope. Akhirnya para ilmuwan tersebut bisa menyaksikan denyutan cahaya elektrik itu berulang lebih dari 1000 kali dalam satu detik !!!

Prof. William Brown yang memimpin para pakar sains untuk mengkaji fenomena tersebut mengisyaratkan setelah dicapainya hasil bahwasanya tidak ada penafsiran ilmiah atas fenomena tersebut. Padahal seperti diakui oleh sang profesor bahwa pihaknya telah menyerahkan hasil penelitian mereka kepada universitas-universitas serta pusat-pusat kajian di Amerika juga Eropa, akan tetapi semuanya tidak sanggup menafsirkan fenomena bahkan semuanya tercengng tidak tahu harus berkomentar apa.

Pada kesempatan terakhir, fenomena tersebut dihadapkan dan dikaji oleh para pakar dari Britania, dan di antara mereka ada seorang ilmuwan muslim yang berasal dari India. Setelah 5 hari mengadakan kajian dan penelitian ternyata para ilmuwan dari Inggris tersebut angkat tangan. Sang ilmuwan muslim tersebut mengatakan: “Kami umat Islam tahu tafsir dan makna dari fenomena ini, bahkan semenjak 1.400 tahun yang lalu!” Maka para ilmuwan yang hadir pun tersentak dengan pernyataan tersebut, dan meminta dengan sangat untuk menunjukkan tafsir dan makna dari kejadian itu.

Sang ilmuwan muslim segera menyitir firman Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala :

وَإِنْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ إِلا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَلَكِنْ لا تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِيحَهُمْ إِنَّهُ كَانَ حَلِيمًا غَفُورًا (٤٤)

“…Dan tak ada suatupun melainkan bertasbih dengan memuji-Nya, tetapi kamu sekalian tidak mengerti tasbih mereka. Sesungguhnya dia adalah Maha Penyantun lagi Maha Pengampun.” (QS. Al-Isra`: 44)

Tidaklah suara denyutan halus tersebut melainkan lafazh jalalah (nama Allah) sebagaimana tampak dalam layar.Maka keheningan dan keheranan yang luar biasa menghiasi aula di mana ilmuwan muslim tersebut berbicara. Subhanallah, Maha suci Allah! Ini adalah salah satu mukjizat dari sekian banyak mukjizat agama yang haq ini! Segala sesuatu bertasbih mengagungkan nama Allah. Akhirnya orang yang bertanggung jawab terhadap penelitian ini, yaitu profesor William Brown menemui sang ilmuwan muslim untuk mendiskusikan tentang agama yang di bawa oleh seorang Nabi yang ummi (tidak bisa baca tulis) sebelum 1.400 tahun lalu tentang fenomena ini. Maka ilmuwan tersebut pun menerangkan kepadanya tentang Islam, setelah itu ia memberikan hadiah al-Qur`an dan terjemahnya kepada sang profesor.

Selang beberapa hari setelah itu, profesor William mengadakan ceramah di Universitas Carnich – Miloun, ia mengatakan: “Dalam hidupku, aku belum pernah menemukan fenomena semacam ini selama 30 tahun menekuni pekerjaan ini, dan tidak ada seorang ilmuwan pun dari mereka yang melakukan pengkajian yang sanggup menafsirkan apa makna dari fenomena ini. Begitu pula tidak pernah ditemukan kejadian alam yang bisa menafsirinya. Akan tetapi satu-satunya tafsir yang bisa kita temukan adalah dalam al-Qur`an. Hal ini tidak memberikan pilihan lain buatku selain mengucapkan syahadatain: “Aku bersaksi bahwa tidak ada ilah yang haq melainkan Allah, dan bahwa Muhammad adalah hamba dan utusannya!”. Seorang profesor ini telah mengumumkan Islamnya di hadapan para hadirin yang sedang terperangah.

[irma/islampos/solusiislam]

WASPADALAH DENGAN AQIDAH ISLAM KITA

Oleh :  DR. Muhammad Rizieq bin Husein Syihab

Bismillaah wal Hamdulillaah...

Tatkala umat Islam keberatan dengan pencalonan Harry Tanoe sebagai Cawapres, dan umat Islam menolak Ahok sebagai Gubernur mau pun Wagub DKI Jakarta, serta umat Islam mengkritik Menteri Susi yang perokok dan bertatto, ada kalangan "muslim" yang melontarkan pernyataan "nyeleneh" sebagai berikut :

1. "Lebih baik PRESIDEN KAFIR jujur dan adil dari pada PRESIDEN MUSLIM khianat dan zalim".

2. "Lebih baik GUBERNUR KAFIR rajin dan pekerja keras dari pada GUBERNUR MUSLIM korup dan malas."

3. "Lebih Baik MENTERI WANITA PEROKOK BERTATTO TANPA JILBAB tapi tekun dan cerdas dari pada MENTERI WANITA BERJILBAB tapi korup dan culas."

Parahnya, ada OKNUM "Ulama" dari kalangan Kyai dan Habaib yang "mengaminkan" pernyataan-pernyataan "nyeleneh" macam itu, baik langsung mau pun tidak langsung, sehingga mereka KORUPSI DALIL dan MANIPULASI HUJJAH untuk "memfatwakan" bolehnya ORANG KAFIR memimpin umat Islam.

Pernyataan "nyeleneh" macam itu sangat berbahaya, apalagi jika di-iya-kan oleh kalangan yang dianggap "Ulama", karena pernyataan tersebut melecehkan KEISLAMAN seorang muslim dan memaklumi bahkan membanggakan KEKAFIRAN seorang kafir. Sekaligus menghina umat Islam dengan mengesankan seolah umat Islam itu paling brengsek, sedang orang Kafir itu baik dan bagus.

Kenapa pernyataan tersebut tidak dibalik saja sbb :

1. "Lebih baik PRESIDEN MUSLIM jujur dan adil dari pada PRESIDEN KAFIR khianat dan zalim".

2. "Lebih baik GUBERNUR MUSLIM rajin dan pekerja keras dari pada GUBERNUR KAFIR korup dan malas."

3. "Lebih Baik MENTERI WANITA BERJILBAB BUKAN PEROKOK DAN TANPA TATTO yang tekun dan cerdas dari pada MENTERI WANITA PEROKOK BERTATTO DAN TANPA JILBAB yang korup dan culas."

Atau setidaknya buatlah perbandingan  yang "Apple To Apple", artinya perbandingan yang seimbang, seperti : "Apel Malang lebih harum dari pada Apel Thailand", jangan tidak seimbang, seperti : "Apel Malang lebih harum dari pada Terasi."

Karenanya, mestinya pernyataan itu mengambil perbandingan yang cerdas dan adil, yaitu sebagai berikut :

1. Lebih baik PRESIDEN MUSLIM jujur dan adil dari pada PRESIDEN KAFIR jujur dan adil".

2. Lebih baik GUBERNUR MUSLIM rajin dan pekerja keras dari pada GUBERNUR KAFIR  rajin dan pekerja keras."

3. Lebih Baik MENTERI WANITA BERJILBAB BUKAN PEROKOK DAN TANPA TATTO yang tekun dan cerdas dari pada MENTERI WANITA  PEROKOK BERTATTO DAN TANPA JILBAB yang tekun dan cerdas.

Jadi, umat Islam harus waspada tingkat tinggi terhadap pernyataan "nyeleneh" yang SESAT dan MENYESATKAN, karena kalau aneka pernyataan "nyeleneh" tersebut dibiarkan, maka nanti akhirnya akan lahir pernyataan :

"Lebih Baik jadi ORANG KAFIR sukses dan kaya raya, dari pada jadi ORANG ISLAM gagal dan miskin papa." Na'uudzu Billaahi Min Dzaalik ... !!!

Ingat !!! :

1. Setiap manusia yang tidak mengakui ALLAH SWT sebagai satu-satunya Tuhan yang berhak disembah adalah KAFIR.

2. Tidak ada ORANG KAFIR yang tidak Zholim, karena sezholim-zholimnya manusia adalah orang yang tidak mengakui ALLAH SWT sebagai Tuhannya, padahal ALLAH SWT yang telah menciptakannya dan mengaruniakan aneka ragam nikmat kepadanya.

3. ORANG KAFIR yang mati dalam kekafirannya pasti akan kekal masuk dalam NERAKA

Man with a mission

by Marilyn Achiron
Editor, Directorate for Education and Skills

David Puttnam had a storied 30-year career as an independent film producer (The Mission, The Killing Fields, Local Hero, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, to cite just a few of his award-winning films) before he retired from film production to focus on public policy related to education, the environment, and the creative and communications industries. Lord Puttnam, who is now the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma, the Republic of Ireland’s Digital Champion, and chair of Ireland-based Atticus Education, which delivers interactive seminars on film and other subjects to educational institutions around the world, quit school at 16. (“I was bored to tears,” he says. “It was night school that saved me.”) Marilyn Achiron, editor at the Directorate of Education and Skills, met with Lord Puttnam in early November when he was in Paris to give a keynote address to the CERI Conference on Innovation, Governance and Reform in Education.

Marilyn Achiron: In your keynote speech, you talk about creativity in using technologies in education. What do you mean by that? 

David Puttnam: Creativity, for me, is finding metaphors, finding ways of explaining things in an interesting manner. Innovation in teaching is more than just technique. It’s a way of getting teachers to understand that teaching is a wildly interesting, imaginative job; and the results you can get – as we used to call it, the “lightbulb moment” – when you find the right switch for that lightbulb, are absolutely remarkable. But unfortunately, because of curricula pressures, personal pressures, because of class size, etc., teachers find it increasingly difficult to individualise kids in that sense: one kid’s lightbulb is not going to be the same as that of another kid.

MA: In your travels, do you find that teachers are willing to learn new pedagogies, learn to use new technologies in the classroom, or is there resistance? 

DP: I chair the Times Educational Supplement advisory board. In 2008, we realised that we had a perfectly efficient social media site – TES Connect. And we wondered what would happen if we really opened it up to teachers, to try to encourage teachers to talk to each other instead of through us. Teachers place learning materials, lesson plans, ideas, questions on the site. We've now reached a point at which over a million teachers a day, from all over the world, are now accessing this one site. So the idea that teachers aren’t interested in talking to other teachers, or in learning from other teachers, or in passing on information to other teachers has been blown right out of the water. The day when you went to your classroom, closed the door, and jealously guarded your own pedagogy – those days are over, gone.

Having seen the extraordinary success of  social media sites – TES Connect, and others – one criticism I would make is of the overall quality of the resources that are available. Quantitatively, we’ve hit a gold mine; qualitatively, I think it’s operating at about 20% of what's possible. You need to make sure that the resources posted stimulate really innovative and interesting work. One thing we’re looking into is the concept of copyright-free classrooms, which would mean that teachers wouldn’t have to worry about what they can and can’t use – movie clips, clips from television, whatever it might be – so that we’d in effect be challenging teachers to take material and re-use it, rather than looking over their shoulders wondering if they can. It would create an environment of “permissibility” for teachers to find out what’s possible.

MA: As a film producer, you had direct control over the process and your product, you had relatively quick reaction time from the people you worked with. Are you frustrated now in your policy work on education and climate change?

DP: Oh deeply. I no longer believe, in my heart of hearts, that the political will exists to turn things around – until we are faced with an evidential, existential crisis.

MA: What will that be?

It’s going to have to be pretty catastrophic to create lasting behaviour change; and it’s going to have to be something with a clear “read across” to other nations. It can’t just be inundation of coastal Bangladesh, or the vanishing of the Maldives. It can’t just be that. It’s got to be a situation in which every farmer in the [US] Midwest says: “It’s game over”. It has to shatter complacency at the UN; it has to shatter complacency within the OECD.

MA: How do we convince aging populations, particularly in the West, that improving education and maintaining schools are important? 

Anyone who is sufficiently a fantasist to think that good education systems are not a prerequisite to the health care they want, and the pensions they want, and the social security they want as they get older is bonkers, just plain bonkers!

As we discussed during the conference, the difference between the [highly innovative] medical profession and the teaching profession is quite simple. If you’re a surgeon and I come to you with a serious health issue, and you say to me, “You really do have a problem; however, I was reading the other day about a procedure which is really interesting. It’s been used several times and it could – could – save you”, I’m going to say, “Where do I sign?”

What you have is a process that constantly incentivises innovation, because through a series of relatively short-term wins you get long-term gains. The default mechanism in the education world is the opposite, which is: “How do we be sure it will work?” Because the crisis isn’t acute – or isn’t perceived to be acute. That, I think, is why the medical world has developed at an extraordinary pace – and continues to – and why education languishes.

Links:
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI)
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation: Conference on Innovation, Governance and Reform in Education
David Puttnam's PowerPoint Presentation at the CERI Conference on Innovation, Governance and Reform in Education
Photo credit: © OECD/Marco Illuminati

Does lifelong learning perpetuate inequalities in educational opportunities?

by Dirk Van Damme
Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress division, Directorate for Education and Skills

Participation rates of 25-64-year-olds in formal and/or non-formal education

More than 40 years ago, the former French Prime Minister Edgar Faure and his team published one of the most influential educational works of the 20th century: “Learning to Be”, better known as the “Rapport Faure”, in which he mainstreamed the idea of lifelong learning. In Faure’s view, lifelong education was to become the leading educational policy principle for the future. Indeed, it became a powerful, evocative notion, nurturing dreams about “learning societies” in which people’s entire lives would be filled with opportunities to learn.

In the lifelong learning discourse, especially in its more optimistic variants in the late 20th century, there was a strong social equity argument. By creating more and better learning opportunities later in life, this argument went, the inequities in education that marked the first 25 years of a person’s life could be corrected or compensated for. A child’s schooling might be determined by his or her family background or economic and social capital; but missing out on educational opportunities early in life should not necessarily condemn individuals to be excluded from the benefits of learning later on. Second-chance or special education programmes that target low-schooled adults should ensure that providing access to education over a lifetime also results in a better redistribution of learning opportunities across society.

There is nothing wrong with beautiful ideas and dreaming of a better future. But the idea of lifelong learning encountered a fate similar to that of many dreams: the reality was much more sobering. When, in the 1990s, the first large-scale data on participation in adult education became available through the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), the verdict was that adult education did not compensate for, but rather reinforced the gap between the educational haves and have-nots. Adults who were already highly literate participated in larger numbers than those who had low levels of literacy.  

Have things changed over the past 20 years? The latest Education Indicator in Focus brief reports on adult participation in post-initial education and training as revealed in the 2012 Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). On average across the 24 national and sub-national entities that participated in the survey, about half of the 25-64 year-old respondents had participated in formal or non-formal adult education or training. But the average hides wide variations, which are strongly associated with such factors as the respondent’s educational attainment, skills level or employment status (see the chart above). Highly educated, high-skilled adults who are employed participate much more than low-educated, low-skilled and unemployed or inactive adults. In other words, the data gathered in 2012 show similar results to the data gathered 20 years earlier. Accumulating educational opportunities, not compensating for missed opportunities early on, seems to be the dominant dynamic in lifelong learning.

But a closer look reveals three important nuances. The first is the higher level of participation in all categories since the 1990s. Although the metrics that measured participation were not quite the same, in all countries that participated in both surveys, the participation rate increased across the board. This means that low-skilled, low-educated adults have better access to learning opportunities. In 2012, 30% of low-skilled adults reported that they had participated in some form of formal or non-formal adult education or training – double the proportion of 20 years earlier.

The second is related to the enormous differences between countries, both in the average participation rate and in who participates. The average participation rate in Nordic countries is double that of Italy and the Slovak Republic, for example. And, in general, the countries with lower average participation rates are also those with wide disparities in participation, suggesting that country differences in average participation can be explained more by differences in participation rates of low-educated and low-skilled adults than by those of better educated, high-skilled adults.

The third observation directly challenges the “accumulation” view of adult education. When looking at who participates in adult education by the parents’ level of education, the gap between individuals whose parents attained below upper secondary education versus those whose parents have a tertiary degree is small, and much smaller than the gap in the educational attainment level of the respondents themselves. The impact of one’s family background on participation in adult education seems to be significantly lower than it is during compulsory education.

Lifelong learning provides educational opportunities to those who already had a lot of them. From a pedagogical point of view, this is hardly surprising, because one of the great things about learning is that it opens the mind for more. Learning begets learning as it instils the thirst for more. Sure, the educationally better-off enjoy more of lifelong learning’s promises and benefits, but not mainly because family background or previous academic success perpetuates inequalities in educational opportunities, but because learning has created its own dynamic of desire for more. Instilling a desire for learning in initial education, as part of a broader culture of learning, is the best way to ensure that as many adults as possible take advantage of educational opportunities later in life.

Links:

Education Indicators in Focus, Issue No. 26, by Simon Normandeau and Gara Rojas González
Education Indicators in Focus, Issue No. 26, French version
On this topic, visit:
Education Indicators in Focus: www.oecd.org/education/indicators 
On the OECD’s education indicators, visit:
Education at a Glance 2014: OECD Indicators: www.oecd.org/edu/eag.htm
Chart Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2014: Indicator C6 (www.oecd.org/edu/eag.htm).