ABSTRACT

In 1994, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD1) launched a three-year activity on educational failure. The most important outcomes were four country-hosted seminars, in which national representatives exchanged points of view about key issues for policy development in this area. A final report drew together previous OECD work on this topic; expert and country contributions; as well as case studies and statistical analyses related to failure in different national contexts. The conclusions of this work will be disseminated in two OECD publications (forthcoming, 1997a and 1997b). This chapter presents the main findings of the activity on ‘Combating Failure at School’ and therefore draws on the knowledge and expertise of all those who participated in it.2 The views expressed here, however, are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the point of view of member governments.