Executive Summary

Despite increased funding, expansion of different educational levels and many reforms, most education systems around the world have not yet found effective ways to improve outcomes to prepare students for our volatile and uncertain world and its increasing demands for higher non-routine skills. As the Red Queen says to Alice in Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll): “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” This might well be a metaphor for our rapidly changing environment, where education systems need to adapt continuously to keep up with the rapid pace at which technological change and the digital revolution are affecting the way we work, live and relate to one another. Keeping up requires improving the performance of all students, overcoming the factors that may hinder their outcomes, and equipping them with new sets of skills.