1. World Bank Policy Paper on Secondary Education: Juan Manuel Moreno World Bank September 23, 2005 Seminar on “Expanding Opportunities and Building Competencies: A New Agenda for Secondary Education”

2. Secondary Education: From Weakest Link to Cornerstone The Origins as the Weakest Link The Change of Partner Access – Quality – Equity

3. The Strategic Nature of Secondary Education Within any given education system, secondary education works as the bridging or articulation bond between primary schooling and tertiary education institutions: Secondary education can serve as a set of pathways for students ’ progress and advancement … Or as the main bottleneck preventing the equitable expansion of educational opportunities.

4. Secondary Education As a Policy Paradox Terminal - Preparatory. Compulsory – Post-compulsory Basic – Post-Basic Uniform-diverse Individual needs and interests - Societal/Labor market needs Integrate students and offset disadvantages – Select and Screen according to academic ability Common curriculum for all - Specialized curriculum for some

5. Political Tensions While there are strong national and international lobbies for primary or tertiary, there are no such thing for secondary education. Reaching political consensus for secondary expansion and reform is much more difficult than for primary or tertiary education. As a result, policy choices are more ambiguous, risky and complex.

6. Secondary Education: Why now? After primary education, What? Surging demand driven by EFA. “Youth-quake” The largest ever cohort of young people. A global risk or opportunity? Need to build/harness their skills Primary education is not enough Globalization and knowledge society present new challenges to human capital development Demand for secondary education is soaring Confluence of 3 forces:

7. Twin Challenge Develop a mass system of secondary education, with quality and equity Improve quality, defined as different institutional responses to an increasingly diverse demand Generate effective demand for secondary education among youth

10. OECD Average

11. How the demand for skills is changing (I) How the demand for skills is changing (I) (Levy and Murnane, 2004) 1.Expert thinking: solving problems for which there are no rule-based solutions, e.g. diagnosing the illness of a patient. 2.Complex communication: interacting with humans to acquire information, to explain it, or to persuade others of its implications for action.

12. How the demand for skills is changing (II) 3.Routine cognitive tasks: mental tasks that are well described by logical rules, e.g. maintaining expense reports. 4.Routine manual tasks: physical tasks that can be well described using rules, e.g. counting and packaging pills. 5.Non-routine manual tasks: physical tasks that cannot be well described as following a set of “If- Then-Do rules” – instead, they require optical recognition and fine muscle control.

13. Expert Thinking Complex Communication Routine Manual Routine Cognitive Non-routine Manual 1969197419791984198919941998 Source: Autor, Levy, and Murnane (2003) “The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration,” Quarterly Journal of Economics.

14. Pause Asking the right questions! What percentage of your 16 year old population do you want to master the so-called 21 st century skills? Which curriculum prepares best for an uncertain future?

15. Is Sustainable Expansion of Secondary Education Feasible? Hong-Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Finland, demonstrate that it is possible And it can be done in a short period of time. Between 1990 and 2000 these countries increased the average years of schooling by more than 4.5 years Finland and Korea did it, by decreasing the fraction of the adult population with only primary education and increasing the opportunities for all to attend secondary education

16. Finland and Korea Balanced Expansion of Educational Attainment

17. Colombia and Bangladesh Unbalanced Expansion of Educational Attainment

18. Financial Gaps and Imbalances Fast- growing economies Countries succeeding in expanding secondary enrollment Slow- growing economies Countries not succeeding in expanding secondary enrollment Per-student spending on secondary students as a ratio of per- student spending on primary students Per-student spending on tertiary students as a ratio of per-student spending on secondary students 1.4 2.2 2.6 3.03.211.09.3

19. Which curriculum prepares best?: Overall Trends in Curriculum Reform (i) Deferring selection and specialization of pupils Ability grouping, tracking and streaming may raise the attainment of higher achievers at the expense of low achievers, which, apart from equity concerns, also raises worries about the loss of human and social capital

20. Which curriculum prepares best?: Overall Trends in Curriculum Reform (ii) Increasing the status recognition of traditional vocational education, in part by pushing it to the upper secondary level and then to post-secondary level. Departing from the disciplinary tradition of curriculum design and development, thus moving to broader curriculum areas, skill centered-approaches, etc., which amount to a more relevant and inclusive secondary curriculum.

21. The Challenge is to Build up Meta-cognitive Capital and Creative Capital (i)  Ability to integrate formal and informal learning, declarative knowledge (or knowing that) and procedural knowledge (or know-how)  Ability to access, select and evaluate knowledge in an information-soaked world  Ability to develop and apply several forms of intelligence, beyond strictly cognitive factors  Ability to work and learn effectively in teams

22. The Challenge is to Build up Meta-cognitive Capital and Creative Capital (ii)  Ability to create, transpose and transfer knowledge  Ability to cope with ambiguous situations, unpredictable problems and unforeseeable circumstances  Ability to cope with multiple careers, learning how to locate oneself in a job market, choose and fashion the relevant education and training Learning to Think and Learning to Learn

23. The Shifting – and Fading – Frontier between General and Vocational Curricula Reduction in the fragmentation of secondary school curriculum The issue nowadays is not so much how to provide vocational skills but how to add basic vocational content to the general curriculum Introducing greater diversity in upper secondary education through the development of multi-faceted programs offering alternative pathways for education and training

24. The Shifting – and Fading – Tension between General and Vocational Secondary Education Curriculum-based reform of secondary education is prioritizing skills and competencies that go beyond and cut across the traditional general/vocational divide Specialized vocational programs are being upgraded; vocational and specialized training elements are a must in Secondary Education if education systems want to retain students in secondary schools

25. Converging Agendas in the 21 st Century Educating the citizen Training the worker

26. Access and Quality are not just twin goals but Siamese Twins No country has expanded secondary education without creating the public opinion perception of a quality drop. Unchecked expansion can lead to increased inequality, particularly gender and ethnic inequality.

27. Is It Just More of the Same? It is not enough to “ open doors ”. Changes in the way education services are delivered. The implications of Curriculum differentiation. Combination of supply and demand side interventions. Need to build political consensus

28. And The Role of the State is More Important than Ever Mobilizing financial resources. Ensuring political consensus and providing technical leadership and support. Creating conditions for alternative providers Targeting the poor and excluded groups. Monitoring and evaluating service delivery and system quality.

29. Looking Ahead: 3 Key Challenges Minimizing the inter-country/inter- regional education gap Sustainable financing of the expansion Address youth needs of relevant secondary education experiences