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In 1996, the OECD education ministers agreed to develop strategies for 'lifelong learning for all', an approach endorsed by ministers of labour, ministers of social affairs and the OECD Council at ministerial level. The concept of 'from cradle to grave' includes formal, non-formal and informal learning. This country note on Korea forms part of the OECD's 'Thematic review of the recognition of non-formal and informal learning [RNFIL]', a project launched in 2006. The main purposes of the collaborative policy analysis (CPA) strand of the project are to sharpen the focus of the policy issues, promote more policy dialogue and analysis between the OECD Secretariat and the country reviewed in a collaborative manner, and deliver outputs that will meet the needs of the country in a timely manner. Countries have been asked to select the focus of CPA which, whilst being specific to a country, must be within the relevant scope of these selected issues: visibility of learning outcomes; transferability of learning outcomes; impact on the users; or transparency of the RNFIL system. Korea has selected 'transferability of learning outcomes' as the focus of the CPA, with a specific case study of the 'Korean academic credit bank system'. The case study of this system was mutually agreed by the OECD Secretariat and the Korean authorities to be the focus to examine effective policies to promote 'transferability of learning outcomes'. The OECD team visited Korea on 4-7 September 2007 and engaged in a full programme of visits and meetings arranged by the Korean Steering Group.

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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can bring a wide range of benefits for children, parents and society at large. However, these benefits are conditional on ‘quality’. This report is one of a series of country reports focusing on quality issues. The reports tackle a specific theme that was selected by the country reviewed, and suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. ‘Starting strong III: a quality toolbox for early childhood education and care’ has identified five policy levers that can encourage quality in ECEC, having positive effects on early child development and learning: (1) setting out quality goals and regulations; (2) designing and implementing curriculum and standards; (3) improving qualifications, training and working conditions; (4) engaging families and communities; and (5) advancing data collection, research and monitoring. Of these five, Finland has selected the third, ‘improving qualifications, training and working conditions’ for its current policy focus. Show less

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can bring a wide range of benefits for children, parents and society at large. However, these benefits are conditional on 'quality'. Expanding access to services without attention to quality will not deliver good outcomes for children or long-term productivity benefits for society. This report for Sweden is one of a series country reports that focus on quality issues. Each report tackles a specific theme that was selected by the country reviewed. These reports suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. Based on international literature reviews findings, the OECD has identified five levers as key policies to encourage quality in ECEC: (1) setting out quality goals and regulations; (2) designing and implementing curriculum and standards; (3) improving qualifications, training and working conditions; (4) engaging families and communities; and (5) advancing data collection, research and monitoring. Of the five policy levers, Sweden has selected 'designing and implementing curriculum and standards' for its current policy focus. The contents are: What does the research say? Where does Sweden stand compared to other countries? What are the challenges and strategies? Show less

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can bring a wide range of benefits for children, parents and society at large. However, these benefits are conditional on ‘quality’. Expanding access to services without attention to quality will not deliver good outcomes for children or long-term productivity benefits for society. This report is one of a series of country reports that focus on quality issues. Each report tackles a specific theme that was selected by the country reviewed, suggesting strengths and areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. Based on international literature reviews findings, the OECD has identified five levers as key policies to encourage quality in ECEC: (1) setting out quality goals and regulations; (2) designing and implementing curriculum and standards; (3) improving qualifications, training and working conditions; (4) engaging families and communities; and (5) advancing data collection, research and monitoring. Of the five levers, the Czech Republic selected ‘designing and implementing curriculum and standards’ to be the theme of this policy profile. This report consists of three chapters: ‘What does research say?’ describes the latest research and why a framework, such as curriculum or learning standards, matters for better child development; ‘Where does the Czech Republic stand compared to other countries?’ provides an international comparative overview of where the country stands with regard to curriculum design, identifying the strengths and areas for reflection for the Czech Republic in comparison with the selected reference countries; and ‘What are the challenges and strategies?’ presents the challenges countries have faced in designing, revising and implementing curriculum and gives alternative approaches to overcome these challenges. It provides a quick overview of what New Zealand, Norway and Scotland (United Kingdom) have done to tackle challenges in designing, revising or implementing curriculum.

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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can bring a wide range of benefits for children, parents and society at large. However, these benefits are conditional on 'quality'. Expanding access to services without attention to quality will not deliver good outcomes for children or long-term productivity benefits for society. This report for Portugal is one of a series country reports that focus on quality issues. Each report tackles a specific theme that was selected by the country reviewed. These reports suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. Based on international literature reviews findings, the OECD has identified five levers as key policies to encourage quality in ECEC: (1) setting out quality goals and regulations; (2) designing and implementing curriculum and standards; (3) improving qualifications, training and working conditions; (4) engaging families and communities; and (5) advancing data collection, research and monitoring. Of the five policy levers, Portugal has selected 'designing and implementing curriculum and standards' for its current policy focus. The contents are: What does research say? Where does Portugal stand compared to other countries? What are the challenges and strategies? Show less

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can bring a wide range of benefits for children, parents and society at large. However, these benefits are conditional on 'quality'. Expanding access to services without attention to quality will not deliver good outcomes for children or long-term productivity benefits for society. This report for Norway is one of a series country reports that focus on quality issues. Each report tackles a specific theme that was selected by the country reviewed. These reports suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. Based on international literature reviews findings, the OECD has identified five levers as key policies to encourage quality in ECEC: (1) setting out quality goals and regulations; (2) designing and implementing curriculum and standards; (3) improving qualifications, training and working conditions; (4) engaging families and communities; and (5) advancing data collection, research and monitoring. Of the five policy levers, Norway has selected 'designing and implementing curriculum and standards' for its current policy focus. The contents are: What does research say? Where does Norway stand compared to other countries? What are the challenges and strategies? Show less

The 'OECD review of migrant education' was launched to help policy makers to design and implement migrant education policy successfully in their countries. It will provide solid facts about access, participation and student performance of immigrant students in comparison with their native peers and identify a set of policy options based on evidence of what works and examples of experience from many countries. The OECD is conducting policy reviews of migrant education in Austria, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. This report is one in the series of country policy reviews and provides country-specific diagnosis and policy recommendations. By international standards, immigrant students in Ireland, on average, perform as well as their native peers at age 15. However, non-English speaking immigrants face particular challenges and do less well. Ireland is currently undertaking measures with a strong focus on language support and intercultural education. There is scope to: improve access to quality early childhood education and care for all, especially immigrant children, by implementing 'Free Pre-School Year for All'; strengthen initial and ongoing learning opportunities for language support teachers; concentrate efforts on mainstreaming language support and intercultural education into regular curriculum, teacher education and research; reinforce a 'whole-school approach' by enhancing capacities of teachers and school leaders to be more responsive to the growing linguistic and cultural diversity of students; ensure access to school, home and community liaison services for immigrant families, with careful attention to language and cultural barriers; collect better data to further encourage schools to adopt diversity and inclusive education; and set up a coherent framework for continuous feedback - at classroom, school and system [levels] - embedded in policy evaluation and school inspection. The overall findings of the review will be published in 2010 as a concise, action-oriented handbook for policy makers.

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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can bring a wide range of benefits for children, parents and society at large. However, these benefits are conditional on ‘quality’. This report is one of a series of country reports focusing on quality issues. The reports tackle a specific theme that was selected by the country reviewed, and suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. ‘Starting strong III: a quality toolbox for early childhood education and care’ has identified five policy levers that can encourage quality in ECEC, having positive effects on early child development and learning: (1) setting out quality goals and regulations; (2) designing and implementing curriculum and standards; (3) improving qualifications, training and working conditions; (4) engaging families and communities; and (5) advancing data collection, research and monitoring. Of these five, the Slovak Republic has selected the third, ‘improving qualifications, training and working conditions’ for its current policy focus. Show less

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can bring a wide range of benefits for children, parents and society at large. However, these benefits are conditional on 'quality'. Expanding access to services without attention to quality will not deliver good outcomes for children or long-term productivity benefits for society. This report for New Zealand is one of a series country reports that focus on quality issues. Each report tackles a specific theme that was selected by the country reviewed. These reports suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. Based on international literature reviews findings, the OECD has identified five levers as key policies to encourage quality in ECEC: (1) setting out quality goals and regulations; (2) designing and implementing curriculum and standards; (3) improving qualifications, training and working conditions; (4) engaging families and communities; and (5) advancing data collection, research and monitoring. Of the five policy levers, New Zealand has selected 'designing and implementing curriculum and standards' for its current policy focus. The contents are: What does research say? Where does New Zealand stand compared to other countries? What are the challenges and strategies? Show less

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) can bring a wide range of benefits for children, parents and society at large. However, these benefits are conditional on 'quality'. Expanding access to services without attention to quality will not deliver good outcomes for children or long-term productivity benefits for society. This report for Japan is one of a series country reports that focus on quality issues. Each report tackles a specific theme that was selected by the country reviewed. These reports suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. Based on international literature reviews findings, the OECD has identified five levers as key policies to encourage quality in ECEC: (1) setting out quality goals and regulations; (2) designing and implementing curriculum and standards; (3) improving qualifications, training and working conditions; (4) engaging families and communities; and (5) advancing data collection, research and monitoring. Of the five policy levers, Japan has selected 'improving qualifications, training and working conditions' for its current policy focus. The contents are: Where does Japan stand regarding policy outcomes and inputs? What does research say? Where does Japan stand compared to other countries? What are the challenges and strategies? Show less