Contemporary discussions on the future of education take on an international character. One of the most prominent, and for some the most controversial, is the theory behind the PISA, the international comparative research on education launched by the end of last century by the OECD, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris. As the PISA website states: “The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial international survey which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students who are nearing the end of their compulsory education. PISA assesses how well they can apply what they learn in school to real-life situations.”1 The comparisons were made by making use of tests, and the results are presented in a quantitative way, thus generating a fuzz on what countries are at the top, and what countries lag behind. An international rat race was started and at national level, discussions were started by politicians and others on why students in their own country were not as well educated as the students in a neighbouring country. In some countries reforms were introduced to support the subjects investigated by PISA. Thus the art subjects were seen as less important.
1 http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/
Please find the whole Keynote here