best education in the world

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Education Rankings by Country 2024

There is a correlation between a country's educational system quality and its economic status, with developed nations offering higher quality education.

The U.S., despite ranking high in educational system surveys, falls behind in math and science scores compared to many other countries.

Educational system adequacy varies globally, with some countries struggling due to internal conflicts, economic challenges, or underfunded programs.

While education levels vary from country to country, there is a clear correlation between the quality of a country's educational system and its general economic status and overall well-being. In general, developing nations tend to offer their citizens a higher quality of education than the least developed nations do, and fully developed nations offer the best quality of education of all. Education is clearly a vital contributor to any country's overall health.

According to the Global Partnership for Education , education is considered to be a human right and plays a crucial role in human, social, and economic development . Education promotes gender equality, fosters peace, and increases a person's chances of having more and better life and career opportunities.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." — Nelson Mandela

The annual Best Countries Report , conducted by US News and World Report, BAV Group, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania , reserves an entire section for education. The report surveys thousands of people across 78 countries, then ranks those countries based upon the survey's responses. The education portion of the survey compiles scores from three equally-weighted attributes: a well-developed public education system, would consider attending university there, and provides top-quality education. As of 2023, the top ten countries based on education rankings are:

Countries with the Best Educational Systems - 2021 Best Countries Report*

Ironically, despite the United States having the best-surveyed education system on the globe, U.S students consistently score lower in math and science than students from many other countries. According to a Business Insider report in 2018, the U.S. ranked 38th in math scores and 24th in science. Discussions about why the United States' education rankings have fallen by international standards over the past three decades frequently point out that government spending on education has failed to keep up with inflation.

It's also worthwhile to note that while the Best Countries study is certainly respectable, other studies use different methodologies or emphasize different criteria, which often leads to different results. For example, the Global Citizens for Human Rights' annual study measures ten levels of education from early childhood enrollment rates to adult literacy. Its final 2020 rankings look a bit different:

Education Rates of Children Around the World

Most findings and ranking regarding education worldwide involve adult literacy rates and levels of education completed. However, some studies look at current students and their abilities in different subjects.

One of the most-reviewed studies regarding education around the world involved 470,000 fifteen-year-old students. Each student was administered tests in math, science, and reading similar to the SAT or ACT exams (standardized tests used for college admissions in the U.S.) These exam scores were later compiled to determine each country's average score for each of the three subjects. Based on this study, China received the highest scores , followed by Korea, Finland , Hong Kong , Singapore , Canada , New Zealand , Japan , Australia and the Netherlands .

On the down side, there are many nations whose educational systems are considered inadequate. This could be due to internal conflict, economic problems, or underfunded programs. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's Education for All Global Monitoring Report ranks the following countries as having the world's worst educational systems:

Countries with the Lowest Adult Literacy Rates

• Education rankings are sourced from both the annual UN News Best Countries report and the nonprofit organization World Top 20

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Which country ranks first in education?

Which country ranks last in education, frequently asked questions.

• Best Countries for Education - 2023 - US News
• Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) - World Bank
• World Best Education Systems - Global Citizens for Human Rights
• UNESCO - Global Education Monitoring Reports
• World’s 10 Worst Countries for Education - Global Citizen
• International Education Database - World Top 20

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• Study Abroad /

Best Education System in the World: Top 20 Countries

• Updated on  
• Nov 18, 2022

The pursuit of the greatest education has always been a top priority for human civilization. Education is what distinguishes us from one another, liberates us from the shambles, and empowers us to act for the betterment of society. Even though a number of poets , writers, and intellectuals have written at length praising the importance of education but with the progression in modern society, its need has become more imperative. Countries all around the globe have begun to provide high-quality education in a variety of fields to students from all over the world, in addition to their own people. But have you ever considered whether nations offer an education system that can meet your demands and help you launch a career in your chosen field? In this blog, we will discuss some of the top countries having the best education system in the world.

This Blog Includes:

World education rankings list by country: top 20 countries with best education system in the world, countries with best education system in the world 2022, united states, united kingdom, netherlands, france , sweden , top universities in the world.

Although the world education rankings list by country is based on the various parameters indicated above, we’ll concentrate on the two most important ones:

• One of the best indices that international investors can use to assess economic, institutional, and financial aspects is the Global Opportunity Index.
• The Quality Index provides information on a nation’s physical safety, economic security, employment opportunities, and other factors.

When it comes to pursuing higher education from abroad, every country has its own set of pros and cons. While one country may score well on the infrastructure, the other may offer degree programs that are new and unique. For instance, If we take into consideration parameters like quality of living, teacher-student ratio, and availability of public resources for studies, the list would include the countries that have shaped modern education like Finland, Denmark, Norway, Japan, Russia, etc. Thus, it can be slightly difficult to decide which country offers high-quality education. Based on the parameters like the types of programs offered, interdisciplinarity in programs, placements, university rankings, and the number of enrolled international students, we have curated a list of countries that are known for having the best education system. Moreover Certlibrary also helps to find the best education environment in the world.

Did you know: In South Korea, high school students have double shifts every day that makes for around 12-13 hours at school.

A pioneer in modern education, the US is known for providing high-quality education delivered by world-renowned faculty. The country boasts of having more Nobel Laureates than any other country and hosting more than a million international students every year, as per the world education rankings list by country. Computer Science , Engineering , Business Management , Law , and Arts are some of the most popular courses among international students in the US. Further, the emphasis placed on research and development in the USA education system has led universities to offer an array of research-oriented degree programs especially STEM Courses at graduate, postgraduate, and doctorate levels thus making it the most preferred destination for education. Being the home for universities like Harvard University, University of Oxford , Yale Universit y , and MIT , the US undoubtedly has the best education system in the world. 

Did you know: Oral exams held in UK universities and colleges are rigorous and intensive tests that were held over three days.

Known for its diverse culture, low tuition fees, and living costs, Canada has emerged as a preferred study destination for a large number of students. The Canadian universities have been consistently ranked among the top educational institutions in the world by QS and Times for offering an array of degrees and short-term courses across various disciplines. With the University of Toronto and Queen’s University among the premier institutions of the country, the Canadian education system has etched its name in some of the best in the world. It provides students with a platform to specialize in courses in the fields of Engineering, Commerce, and the Arts.

Did you know: Finnish students only have to sit for a centralized exam at the age of 16!

For non-English speakers, Germany is the preferred destination for higher studies. Home to leading automobile brands like Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, Germany has established its name in the automobile industry. Its institutions are renowned for offering intensive courses in Engineering, Design, MBBS in Germany , etc.  A large number of scholarships are also available for international students which attract students from worldwide, making Germany one of the countries with the best education system in the world. 

Did you know: Chinese students are given the most homework in the world, followed by Russians and Singaporeans!

The world’s 6 largest country by area, Australia, is known for its high-quality education and excellent career opportunities. Offering diverse courses in fields like Engineering, Administration, Architecture, Media, Business, Communication and Art, Australia is a popular destination to study abroad . With 7 Australian universities in the top 100 list of QS 2022 rankings, the Australian education system can be counted among the best in the world. Australian universities also have research centres in a number of countries. 

Having recorded a whopping 99% literacy rate, Denmark is undeniably a top mention while finding the best education system in the world. Free education is offered in Denmark from primary to higher education. Further, the country’s government has ensured that education is compulsory for students up to 16 years of age which is one of the unique features adopted amongst the other education system in the world. It is one of the top countries to study abroad as well and attracts scores of international students from around the world with dreams to fulfil their higher studies at the world-renowned Denmark universities imparting quality education and globally recognized and acclaimed degrees.

Did you know: Japanese schools teach subjects like moral education called dotoku !

Finland has also been internationally lauded for formulating the best education system in the world because the country has meticulously designed an educational apparatus that is at par with other countries across the globe. The Finland Education System emphasizes providing access to free education from primary to higher education and has been consistently restructured to add newer and better changes. Its quintessential focus is to impart students with incremental life skills and when it comes to higher studies, you can choose from the traditional research-based universities offering theoretical programs or Universities of Applied Science providing industry-based and training programs!

Did you know: The City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, is the largest school in the world in terms of a number of students, with more than 32,000 students.

There is a reason why the Dutch education system is known and appreciated worldwide. Because of its excellent quality and top-ranked world-class universities, the Dutch education system is one of the best education systems in the world. These institutions are known worldwide for their well-designed, cutting-edge curriculum and facilities. The teaching approach emphasizes cooperation, making it easier for international students in the Netherlands to meet both Dutch and other international students. Having said that, solid personal relationships between professors and students are highly valued at Dutch universities. Dutch universities include many practical elements in their degree programs too. It is the first non-English speaking country to develop courses in English to attract overseas students. Modern teaching approaches are employed and as the government has subsidized higher education, the cost of studying is cheap as compared to other European countries. 

Did you know: All schools in Iran have single-sex schools!

Having the highest enrollment rate of early childhood made France have a handsome spot on the list of top countries with the best education systems in the world. It’s a long-held belief that the French education system is one of the best in the world. It is not only the greatest but also one of the most successful educational systems in the world. France was a pioneer in revolutionizing its educational system. The French education system now is divided into three stages: elementary education, secondary education, and higher education. The majority of primary and secondary schools in France , as well as a considerable number of colleges, are public institutions with highly centralized administrations. Having said that, education is one of the most basic rights in France which has been made compulsory from the age of 6 to 16. Although, the vast majority of children begin school long before the minimal age, frequently as early as two years old, and more than half of 18-21 year age groups in France are still enrolled in full-time education or pursuing a vocational training program.

Did you know: In Germany, kindergarten education is optional for preschoolers!

Like its other Nordic sister countries like Finland, Norway, and Denmark, Sweden has really performed well to keep pace and be one of the top 20 countries with the best education systems in the world. If you’re wondering how a tiny little nation like Sweden can have a world-class education system, it’s because they believe in academic achievement, learning, and quality education over grades. They place a high value on developing team players. Students are equipped for a successful career in this manner. Sweden has a reputation for being forward-thinking. Researchers at Swedish universities have always contributed to the emergence of the greatest inventions like Bluetooth, Pacemakers, Skype, and Spotify. The international students studying in Sweden come from different parts of the world just to have a taste of its education system and be a part of the Swedish education revolution.

Did you know: France has the shortest school year from August to June and also the longest school day.

Other than the above-mentioned countries with best education system in the world, you must also check out the following:

Listed below are the top universities in the world :

Countries having the hardest and most difficult education systems in the world are as follows: South Korea Japan Singapore Hong Kong Finland

According to a survey done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Chinese kids are the smartest in the world. According to the OECD’s triennial PISA – Program for International Student Assessment – Chinese children surpass their classmates in science, arithmetic, and reading, regardless of socioeconomic background.

Countries that have the leading healthcare systems in the world are as follows: Taiwan South Korea France Japan Denmark

The Indian education system has the toughest Mathematics curriculum in the entire world. The most difficult exam in the world is the IIT JEE, which is held in India. It is made up of Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

Hopefully, with this blog, you are now aware of the countries with the best education system. If you want to pursue higher studies in these countries but are not sure about how to get started with it then the experts at Leverage Edu will assist you in every stage of the admission process. 

Team Leverage Edu

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Yes, it is possible to study in the UK without IELTS. To understand better, read our blog on Study in UK without IELTS- https://leverageedu.com/blog/study-in-uk-without-ielts/ .

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“Education,” as Nelson Mandela said, “is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

And while every country on Earth has a schooling system, there’s a vast discrepancy in how well each country is able to use it and arm its children with education, leaving the most successful, high-income nations racing ahead of the struggling ones.

“When it's shown as an average number of years in school and levels of achievement, the developing world is about 100 years behind developed countries,” according to the Brookings Institution.

Read More: 5 Countries Where College Is Free

The best of the best keep student-teacher ratios low, kids in school longer, and graduate the greatest number of students with a quality education. Who are these powerhouses? Read on to learn about 10 of the countries that get a figurative A+ in education — and can school the rest of the world on how it’s done.

What’s up down under? Education for all. Placing at the top of the Education Index in the United Nations’ Human Development Report , the country-continent of 24 million expects students will complete an impressive 20-plus years of schooling (The U.S., for comparison, expects 16). In fact, 100% of preschool, primary- and secondary-school age kids are enrolled — and 94% of citizens over 25 have at least some secondary education. Hand-in-hand with full classrooms (in a teacher-student ratio of 14:1), Australia admirably supports its educators. The nation gives incentives to teachers taking rural hardship postings and, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report , is taking notable “steps toward pay parity for teachers at all levels.”

Read More: 11 Tech Innovations Changing Global Education

Thanks to an intense focus on academics starting at age 6 (the primary school drop out rate is just .2 percent), Japan’s students have scoring well down to a science. Ranking No. 2 in Pearson Education ’s annual global educational performance report and placing fourth in reading and seventh in math in the influential Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey — which tests 15-year-old students worldwide in order to compare countries’ education systems — the Pacific Ocean island nation is serious about learning.  And it’s paid off: The literacy rate of their 127 million citizens is 99 percent. 

Read More: 7 Groups Working to Educate the World

South Korea

Standardized tests have met their match in South Korea. Students in the 49-million-person republic — who are randomly assigned to private and public high schools — routinely score at the top of academic assessments: Most recently No. 1 overall, and in “Educational Attainment,” in Pearson Education ’s annual global educational performance report as well as fifth in both reading and math on the PISA survey. Long hours of study have helped the students become so successful, reports the BBC , noting that, “South Korean parents spend thousands … a year on after-school tuition,” for their kids’ evening cram sessions — every day.

Read More: How 2 Muslim Women Built the World’s Oldest Library

Who knew that lots of breaks can help create academic aces? The Finns. The Northern European nation mandates that their kids — who don’t begin studies until age 7 — have 15-minute outdoor free-play sessions for every hour of their five-hour school day. And though grades aren’t given until fourth grade (and schools don’t require any standardized tests until senior year), their students’ achievement is undoubted. Consistently high PISA survey scorers, Finland’s latest rank is sixth in reading and 12 in math. And it’s not just a few smarties who secure the lead. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the difference between the weakest and strongest students in Finland is the smallest in the world.

Read More: Bombs, Shrapnel, and Books: Syria’s Secret Library

Norway, rated highest in human development by the U.N., prioritizes education for their 5.1 million residents. The Nordic nation spends 6.6% of their GDP on education (nearly 1.5% less than the U.S. does) and keeps their student-teacher ratio below 9:1. Relying on a national curriculum that teachers interpret for their pupils — who aren’t defined by grade level — arts and crafts are part of the program, as well as food and health, music, and physical education. And their system is clearly working. A hundred percent of Norway’s school-age population is enrolled in school, 97 percent have some secondary education, and they’ve closed the gender gap in education to boot!

Read More: 12 Books Every Global Citizen Should Read This Summer

Described as an “exam-oriented” system, education in this island city-state of nearly 5.7 million in Southeast Asia strives to teach children problem solving . They’ve certainly figured out how to conquer tests. Ranking No. 1 in Pearson Education ’s global educational report for “Cognitive Skills” and No. 3 overall, Singapore placed high on the PISA test too: No. 3 in reading and No. 2 in math. Teachers study-up in Singapore as well, participating in professional development throughout their careers.

Read More: This Dynamic Duo Is Riding Bamboo Bikes for Girls’ Education

Netherlands

Geen Nederlands spreken? No problem. Even non-Dutch speaking students get the help they need to succeed in the Netherlands’ schools. The country of 17 million — ranked No. 8 in Pearson Education’s ratings and No. 10 in the PISA survey — provides teaching in languages other than Dutch for students in grades 1 to 4 to foster learning in all subjects. And to keep their 94% graduation rate at the secondary level, they also funnel extra funding to poorer and ethnic minority students. According to UNESCO , the primary schools with the highest proportion of disadvantaged students have, on average, about 58 percent more teachers and support staff.

Read More: 9 Facts to Know About Education Around the World

Dissatisfied with their scores on the 2000 PISA tests, the European country — ranked 7 in the U.N.’s Education Index — took action. They reformed their education policy, including, “the adoption of national standards and increased support for disadvantaged students,” per UNESCO , and things turned around for their 82 million population. Today in the PISA rankings, Germany sits at No. 20 in Reading, a two-spot improvement, and is No. 16 in math, a five-spot jump.

It’s not the luck of the Irish that’s earned the European nation sixth place in the U.N.’s Education Index . The country of 4.7 million invests in the education of their citizens, spending 6.2 percent of their GDP on education (more than double what Singapore doles out). This prioritization has helped Ireland give nearly 80 percent of citizens at least some secondary education and graduate 98 percent from secondary level schools.

Read More: Why School Cannot Stop When an Earthquake Hits

The United Kingdom

Of Britons age 25 and older, 99.9 percent have had secondary education in the U.K. (population 64 million). And although England is currently strategizing about how to accommodate the extra 750,000 students that their Department of Education estimates they’ll have in their schools by 2025, the nation remains an impressive No. 6 overall in Pearson Education ’s performance report and second only to South Korea in “Educational Attainment.” Cheers to that!

Defeat Poverty

10 Best Countries for Education Around The World

July 29, 2016

Press release

Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2020

Fewer than 10% of countries have laws that help ensure full inclusion in education, according to UNESCO’s 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report: Inclusion and education – All means all.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of key factors for exclusion of learners in education systems worldwide including background, identity and ability (i.e. gender, age, location, poverty, disability, ethnicity, indigeneity, language, religion, migration or displacement status, sexual orientation or gender identity expression, incarceration, beliefs and attitudes). It identifies an exacerbation of exclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic and estimates that about 40% of low and lower-middle-income countries have not supported disadvantaged learners during temporary school shutdown. The 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report urges countries to focus on those left behind as schools reopen so as to foster more resilient and equal societies.

Persistence of exclusion: This year’s report is the fourth annual UNESCO GEM Report to monitor progress across 209 countries in achieving the education targets adopted by UN Member States in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It notes that 258 million children and youth were entirely excluded from education, with poverty as the main obstacle to access. In low- and middle-income countries, adolescents from the richest 20% of all households were three times as likely to complete lower secondary school as were as those from the poorest homes. Among those who did complete lower secondary education, students from the richest households were twice as likely to have basic reading and mathematics skills as those from the poorest households. Despite the proclaimed target of universal upper secondary completion by 2030, hardly any poor rural young women complete secondary school in at least 20 countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Also according to the report, 10-year old students in middle and high-income countries who were taught in a language other than their mother tongue typically scored 34% below native speakers in reading tests. In ten low- and middle-income countries, children with disabilities were found to be 19% less likely to achieve minimum proficiency in reading than those without disabilities. In the United States, for example, LGBTI students were almost three times more likely to say that they had stayed home from school because of feeling unsafe.

Inequitable foundations: Alongside today’s publication, UNESCO GEM Report team launched a new website, PEER, with information on laws and policies concerning inclusion in education for every country in the world. PEER shows that many countries still practice education segregation, which reinforces stereotyping, discrimination and alienation. Laws in a quarter of all countries require children with disabilities to be educated in separate settings, rising to over 40% in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in Asia.

Blatant exclusion: Two countries in Africa still ban pregnant girls from school, 117 allowed child marriages, while 20 had yet to ratify the Convention 138 of the International Labour Organization which bans child labour. In several central and eastern European countries, Roma children were segregated in mainstream schools. In Asia, displaced people, such as the Rohingya were taught in parallel education systems. In OECD countries, more than two-thirds of students from immigrant backgrounds attended schools where they made up at least 50% of the student population, which reduced their chance of academic success.

Parents’ discriminatory beliefs were found to form one barrier to inclusion: Some 15% of parents in Germany and 59% in Hong Kong, China, feared that children with disabilities disturbed others’ learning. Parents with vulnerable children also wished to send them to schools that ensure their well-being and respond to their needs. In Queensland, Australia, 37% of students in special schools had moved away from mainstream establishments.

The Report shows that education systems often fail to take learners’ special needs into account. Just 41 countries worldwide officially recognized sign language and, globally, schools were more eager to get internet access than to cater for learners with disabilities. Some 335 million girls attended schools that did not provide them with the water, sanitation and hygiene services they required to continue attending class during menstruation.

Alienating learners: When learners are inadequately represented in curricula and textbooks they can feel alienated. Girls and women only made up 44% of references in secondary school English-language textbooks in Malaysia and Indonesia, 37% in Bangladesh and 24% in the province of Punjab in Pakistan. The curricula of 23 out of 49 European countries do not address issues of sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.

Teachers need and want training on inclusion, which fewer than 1 in 10 primary school teachers in ten Francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa said they had received. A quarter of teachers across 48 countries reported they wanted more training on teaching students with special needs.

Chronic lack of quality data on those left behind: Almost half of low- and middle-income countries do not collect enough education data about children with disabilities. Household surveys are key for breaking education data down by individual characteristics. But 41% of countries – home to 13% of the world’s population – did not conduct surveys or make available data from such surveys. Figures on learning are mostly taken from school, failing to take into account those not attending.

Signs of progress towards inclusion: The Report and its PEER website note that many countries were using positive, innovative approaches to transition towards inclusion. Many were setting up resource centres for multiple schools and enabling mainstream establishments to accommodate children from special schools, as was the case in Malawi, Cuba and Ukraine. The Gambia, New Zealand and Samoa were using itinerant teachers to reach underserved populations.

Many countries were also seen to go out of their way to accommodate different learners’ needs: Odisha state in India, for example, used 21 tribal languages in its classrooms, Kenya adjusted its curriculum to the nomadic calendar and, in Australia, the curricula of 19% of students were adjusted by teachers so that their expected outcomes could match students’ needs.

The report includes material for a digital campaign, All means All, which promotes a set of key recommendations for the next ten years.

Related items

• Country page: Pakistan
• UNESCO Office in Islamabad
• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

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The OECD report card is in. How does your country compare? Image:  REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

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The world is more educated than ever before , with the average number of years spent in school increasing constantly. So how do levels of education in your country compare?

A new report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Education at a Glance 2017 , looks at the state of education in all 35 member countries and a number of partner countries.

It found that 85% of young adults (aged 25 to 34) have attained upper secondary education, which typically starts at around 15 or 16 years old.

Almost half (43%) have gone further and have a tertiary degree. In some countries the proportion of young adults with a university degree is even higher, at 50% or more including Canada (61%), Ireland (52%), Japan (60%), Korea (70%), Lithuania (55%) and the Russian Federation (60%).

Primary and secondary education

On average across OECD countries, only 6% of adults have not gone further than primary school.

In some countries, however, this percentage is much higher. A quarter of young adults in China (25%) and Saudi Arabia (24%) never made it past primary school. This figure rises to around one-third or more in Costa Rica (29%), Indonesia (43%), Portugal (30%), and Turkey (43%).

The share of young adults who have not reached upper secondary education is 16% on average across OECD countries.

But it’s much higher than that in some countries: more than half of young adults lack an upper secondary or higher education in China (64%), Costa Rica (51%), India (64%), Indonesia (53%), Mexico (53%) and South Africa (51%).

Parental education really matters

The most important factor when it comes to predicting a child’s future education level is parental education.

A young person is much more likely to study for a degree if one or both of their parents have.

The only exception is Japan, where gender and parents’ educational attainment seem to have an equal influence.

What do they study?

Business, administration and law are by far the most popular areas of study in the countries surveyed, chosen by around one in four students (23%).

This varies across countries, of course. In Korea it’s only 14%, while in Luxembourg it’s 37%.

Yet in terms of employability, young people would be better off studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects, according to the report.

Only 16% study engineering, construction and manufacturing, and less than 5% of students opt for information and communication technologies (ICT), despite graduates in these subjects having the highest employment rate on average across OECD countries.

The gender imbalance

Women’s participation in higher education has been increasing across the countries surveyed in recent years. Women are also more likely to complete their degrees than men .

Yet they will earn less.

Average earnings are higher for degree-educated men than for their female peers. Also, rates of employment for men with tertiary degrees tend to be higher than for women with the same level of education.

There is an obvious gender gap in the subjects that young adults choose at university. Far more women than men choose to study education and health and welfare.

And many more men than women study STEM subjects and ICT. Close to three out of four engineering students and four out of five ICT students are men.

That’s despite the fact that on average, girls outperform boys in the PISA science test .

Results from the PISA 2015 assessment indicate that boys’ and girls’ career paths start to diverge well before they actually select a career.

Boys are more likely than girls to envisage themselves in a science-related career when they are 30. Meanwhile, more than seven out of 10 teachers on average across OECD countries are women. Given the number of women choosing to study education versus men, this is unlikely to change soon. Teachers earn up to 60% less on average than similarly educated workers.

Graduate premium

There is also a gender imbalance for the graduate premium – the extra money a graduate can expect to earn as a result of the extra study.

There are only two countries where women see a higher net return from university study than men: Spain and Estonia. For the average woman elsewhere, net financial returns for tertiary education are $167,400, representing only two-thirds of those for a man.

In seven countries, men saw a higher return of up to 50%. The difference was particularly pronounced in Japan, where male graduates can expect a net financial return of almost $240,000, compared with just $28,200 for women.

Spending on education

As a percentage of GDP, the UK spends more on education than any other OECD country, followed closely by Denmark and New Zealand.

France and Sweden spend the least as a percentage of their GDP.

Benefits of higher education

The benefits of a university education remain high. University graduates are more likely to be employed, they earn 56% more than those without a degree, and they are less likely to suffer from depression.

“Tertiary education promises huge rewards for individuals, but education systems need to do a better job of explaining to young people what studies offer the greatest opportunities for life,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría .

“Equitable and high-quality education fuels personal fulfilment as well as economic growth. Countries must step up their efforts to ensure that education meets the needs of today’s children and informs their aspirations for the future.”

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Global Education

By Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska, Natasha Ahuja, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser

A good education offers individuals the opportunity to lead richer, more interesting lives. At a societal level, it creates opportunities for humanity to solve its pressing problems.

The world has gone through a dramatic transition over the last few centuries, from one where very few had any basic education to one where most people do. This is not only reflected in the inputs to education – enrollment and attendance – but also in outcomes, where literacy rates have greatly improved.

Getting children into school is also not enough. What they learn matters. There are large differences in educational outcomes : in low-income countries, most children cannot read by the end of primary school. These inequalities in education exacerbate poverty and existing inequalities in global incomes .

On this page, you can find all of our writing and data on global education.

Key insights on Global Education

The world has made substantial progress in increasing basic levels of education.

Access to education is now seen as a fundamental right – in many cases, it’s the government’s duty to provide it.

But formal education is a very recent phenomenon. In the chart, we see the share of the adult population – those older than 15 – that has received some basic education and those who haven’t.

In the early 1800s, fewer than 1 in 5 adults had some basic education. Education was a luxury; in all places, it was only available to a small elite.

But you can see that this share has grown dramatically, such that this ratio is now reversed. Less than 1 in 5 adults has not received any formal education.

This is reflected in literacy data , too: 200 years ago, very few could read and write. Now most adults have basic literacy skills.

What you should know about this data

• Basic education is defined as receiving some kind of formal primary, secondary, or tertiary (post-secondary) education.
• This indicator does not tell us how long a person received formal education. They could have received a full program of schooling, or may only have been in attendance for a short period. To account for such differences, researchers measure the mean years of schooling or the expected years of schooling .

Despite being in school, many children learn very little

International statistics often focus on attendance as the marker of educational progress.

However, being in school does not guarantee that a child receives high-quality education. In fact, in many countries, the data shows that children learn very little.

Just half – 48% – of the world’s children can read with comprehension by the end of primary school. It’s based on data collected over a 9-year period, with 2016 as the average year of collection.

This is shown in the chart, where we plot averages across countries with different income levels. 1

The situation in low-income countries is incredibly worrying, with 90% of children unable to read by that age.

This can be improved – even among high-income countries. The best-performing countries have rates as low as 2%. That’s more than four times lower than the average across high-income countries.

Making sure that every child gets to go to school is essential. But the world also needs to focus on what children learn once they’re in the classroom.

Millions of children learn only very little. How can the world provide a better education to the next generation?

Research suggests that many children – especially in the world’s poorest countries – learn only very little in school. What can we do to improve this?

• This data does not capture total literacy over someone’s lifetime. Many children will learn to read eventually, even if they cannot read by the end of primary school. However, this means they are in a constant state of “catching up” and will leave formal education far behind where they could be.

Children across the world receive very different amounts of quality learning

There are still significant inequalities in the amount of education children get across the world.

This can be measured as the total number of years that children spend in school. However, researchers can also adjust for the quality of education to estimate how many years of quality learning they receive. This is done using an indicator called “learning-adjusted years of schooling”.

On the map, you see vast differences across the world.

In many of the world’s poorest countries, children receive less than three years of learning-adjusted schooling. In most rich countries, this is more than 10 years.

Across most countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa – where the largest share of children live – the average years of quality schooling are less than 7.

• Learning-adjusted years of schooling merge the quantity and quality of education into one metric, accounting for the fact that similar durations of schooling can yield different learning outcomes.
• Learning-adjusted years is computed by adjusting the expected years of school based on the quality of learning, as measured by the harmonized test scores from various international student achievement testing programs. The adjustment involves multiplying the expected years of school by the ratio of the most recent harmonized test score to 625. Here, 625 signifies advanced attainment on the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) test, with 300 representing minimal attainment. These scores are measured in TIMSS-equivalent units.

Hundreds of millions of children worldwide do not go to school

While most children worldwide get the opportunity to go to school, hundreds of millions still don’t.

In the chart, we see the number of children who aren’t in school across primary and secondary education.

This number was around 260 million in 2019.

Many children who attend primary school drop out and do not attend secondary school. That means many more children or adolescents are missing from secondary school than primary education.

Access to basic education: almost 60 million children of primary school age are not in school

The world has made a lot of progress in recent generations, but millions of children are still not in school.

The gender gap in school attendance has closed across most of the world

Globally, until recently, boys were more likely to attend school than girls. The world has focused on closing this gap to ensure every child gets the opportunity to go to school.

Today, these gender gaps have largely disappeared. In the chart, we see the difference in the global enrollment rates for primary, secondary, and tertiary (post-secondary) education. The share of children who complete primary school is also shown.

We see these lines converging over time, and recently they met: rates between boys and girls are the same.

For tertiary education, young women are now more likely than young men to be enrolled.

While the differences are small globally, there are some countries where the differences are still large: girls in Afghanistan, for example, are much less likely to go to school than boys.

Research & Writing

Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. We are all losing out because of this.

Access to basic education: almost 60 million children of primary school age are not in school, interactive charts on global education.

This data comes from a paper by João Pedro Azevedo et al.

João Pedro Azevedo, Diana Goldemberg, Silvia Montoya, Reema Nayar, Halsey Rogers, Jaime Saavedra, Brian William Stacy (2021) – “ Will Every Child Be Able to Read by 2030? Why Eliminating Learning Poverty Will Be Harder Than You Think, and What to Do About It .” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9588, March 2021.

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The best students in the world, charted

The results are in for the OECD’s latest global test of 15-year-olds in math, science, and reading. The test, known as PISA (for Programme for International Student Assessment), is administered every three years and used—by some—to measure which countries are best preparing their students for the future.

Once again, Asian countries came out on top. In the latest test, China and Singapore ranked first and second, respectively, in math, science, and reading. Elsewhere, Estonia is noteworthy for its performance , ranking highly in all three subjects.

Mainland China is measured by taking an average of four provinces: Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Some argue that “China” shouldn’t be represented by just a few eastern regions, but the OECD says that each of them is comparable in size to many Western countries, and have a combined population of over 180 million. (Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan also appear separately in the rankings.)

What’s more, in the four provinces of mainland China that participated in the study, the 10% most disadvantaged students showed better reading skills than the most advantaged students in some countries, and better performance than the average student in OECD countries.

The OECD is trying to change the test to be about more than academics , in part to encourage countries to view education beyond traditional subjects. In the latest test, it assessed global competency, asking students to express how they relate to others and what they think of their lives and their future; in the next test, in 2021, it will assess creative thinking.

It also regularly asks students questions about their wellbeing, including measures of belonging and life satisfaction.

Results from the latest wellbeing study are concerning. Across OECD countries, only about two-thirds of students said that they were satisfied with their lives, a share that shrank by five percentage points between 2015 and 2018. Almost a quarter of students reported being bullied at least a few times a month and 6% reported always feeling sad. In almost every education system, girls expressed a greater fear of failure than boys, even when they outperformed boys in reading by a large margin.

The OECD says the point of PISA is to help education systems improve by offering data and transparency. “The aim with PISA was not to create another layer of top-down accountability, but to help schools and policy makers shift from looking upwards within the bureaucracy towards looking outwards to the next teacher, the next school, the next country,” wrote Andreas Schleicher in the report with the latest batch of test results.

But PISA has its detractors, including those who believe it tries to do too much, that it distorts what is important, and creates an arms race in education. In 2014, more than 100 academics around the world called for a moratorium on PISA testing, citing the problem Schleicher claims he wants to fix: An over-reliance on testing and a tendency to recommend simple solutions for complex problems.  They wrote:

The new Pisa regime, with its continuous cycle of global testing, harms our children and impoverishes our classrooms, as it inevitably involves more and longer batteries of multiple-choice testing, more scripted ‘vendor’-made lessons, and less autonomy for teachers.

Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the OECD, disagrees. “PISA is not only the world’s most comprehensive and reliable indicator of students’ capabilities, it is also a powerful tool that countries and economies can use to fine-tune their education policies,” he wrote in the report.

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• 10 Countries With The Best Education Systems

• The first Pisa Worldwide Ranking took place in 2000
• Pisa exams in reading, math, and science take place every three years in over 70 countries
• Pisa exams have no minimum or maximum. They are scaled which results in most countries scoring 500 points and a deviation of about 100 points.

Pisa, the Programme for International Student Assessment, has released its 2018 Worldwide Ranking list. The highly influential rankings allow countries to compare their performance in math, reading, and science to education systems around the world. More than 470,000 15-year olds from over 70 countries write the standardized tests administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) . The results are not holistic, however, and not all of the data is reported. Reading scores for Spain , for instance, were omitted after the OECD detected anomalies in response times. Regions like Taiwan and Hong Kong are ranked individually by Pisa, thus altering the placement of independent countries.  

On this list, we’ve used the Pisa scores as well as referencing GDP data from the World Bank and the United Nations . Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macao are included under the China ranking, and the percentage of the population who go on to pursue higher education is also a factor. 

So how did the United States do? According to the Pisa rankings, the US ranked 25th overall, coming in 37th in mathematics, 18th in science, and just missing the top 10 in reading at 13th place. Spending about 4.9% of its GDP on education puts the US on par with Ireland and Poland , and above China , Singapore , and Japan , all of whom made it to our list. Read on to discover which countries offer the best education systems.

Even without the inclusion of Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , China dominated the Pisa tests in 2018, coming in first in all three subjects of reading, science, and mathematics. With these additions, China is an educational powerhouse. Their impressive results come after a decade of modifications to the education system while maintaining an overall spend of about 4% of the GDP. The changes are clearly having a positive impact, not only on Pisa scores but also at the post secondary level where 27% of those aged 25-34 have graduated college or above.

2.  Singapore

Despite being the youngest and smallest country on this list, Singapore is a world leader in education. With a modest 3.3% expenditure on education, Singapore scores an impressive second place in all three subject areas. What’s even more impressive, students are taught not only in English, the official language of Singapore, but also in at least two additional languages, including Chinese, Malay, or Tamil . It’s little wonder that 54% of the population goes on to earn a post-secondary diploma.

3.  Estonia

With 41% of its population holding post-secondary certification, and 5.5% of its GDP dedicated to education, Estonia has consistently been one of the highest achieving European nations on the Pisa rankings since it joined the EU in 2005. Reading and science are particularly strong, with exam results in the top five, while math scores are ranked at 8th place.

Japan boasts a well educated population, with 48% having completed the tertiary level. Despite a relatively low 3.6% government expenditure on education, its high tech economy greatly values secondary and post-secondary achievement as a means of socioeconomic mobility. Unsurprisingly, Japanese students consistently rank among the world’s top five countries for reading, science, and math.

5.  South Korea

Holding a consistent place on the Pisa rankings, with 7th place in math and sciences in 2018, and 9th in reading, South Korea has one of the most educated labour forces worldwide. Over 45% of the population has graduated high school and completed tertiary education. Much of the country’s rapid economic growth and high tech boom is rooted in a societal emphasis on schooling, including 5.1% of government spending dedicated to education.

With 54% of its population having completed post secondary education, which ties it with Russia for the top spot, Canada is the only North American country to make it on this list. Devoting 5.5% of its GDP to education has certainly paid off, with Canada earning top ten scores in reading, math, and sciences well above its neighbors to the south in the US (25th place) and Mexico (56th place).

7.  Finland

Finland has held a place in the top ten Pisa rankings for as long as the OECD has been compiling the data. Famous for its no homework and no mandatory testing policies, this Scandinavian nation tops the government spending list at 6.8% with an impressive 42% of the population going on to earn post secondary certification.  While its Pisa scores in math have dropped to 16th place in 2018, strong results in reading (7th) and science (6th) keep Finland on the list of countries with the best education systems.

Like nearby Estonia , this former Soviet satellite has seen a shift in government spending since joining the EU in 2004. Today Poland allocates 4.9% of the GDP toward education, bringing it on par with Ireland and above other countries on this list such as China and Japan . Poland earned the 10th place spot on the combined Pisa exams, and while 27% of the population holds college level diplomas, that number jumps to 43% when looking at 25-34 year olds.

9.  Ireland

Despite a much lower GDP than its neighbor, the UK , Ireland dedicates 4.9% of it towards education. The return on this investment is evident in rapid gains in the PISA rankings, with Ireland ranking above the UK in overall scores. It’s unsurpising that this highly literate population, 41% of whom have a post-secondary diploma, continues to improve its education system, including the introduction of Gaelscoils , state-funded language immersion schools that teach in the traditional Irish language.  

10. Slovenia

Nestled between Italy , Austria , and Croatia , Slovenia outpaces all of its neighbours in reading, math, and science. Slovenians place a high emphasis on the value of education, dedicating not only 5.7% of its GDP to schooling, but also offering tuition-free undergraduate degrees at state universities. As a result of this no-tuition policy, 38% of 25-34 year olds have a post secondary diploma, with 29% of the overall population completing post-high school studies.

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How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top

Education reform is top of the agenda of almost every country in the world. Yet despite massive increases in spending (last year, the world’s governments spent $2 trillion on education) and ambitious attempts at reform, the performance of many school systems has barely improved in decades. This is all the more surprising because there are wide variations in the quality of education. For instance, in international assessments, less than one percent of African and Middle Eastern children perform at or above the Singaporean average. Nor is this solely the result of the level of investment. Singapore, one of the world’s top performers, spends less on primary education than do 27 of the 30 countries in the OECD. 1 1. Spending per student in primary education, relative to GDP per capita.

Changing what happens in the hearts and minds of millions of children—the main charge of any school system—is no simple task. That some do so successfully while others do not is indisputable. So why is it that some school systems consistently perform better and improve faster than others?

There are many different ways to improve a school system, and the complexity of this task and the uncertainty about outcomes is rightly reflected in the international debate about how this should best be done. To find out why some schools succeed where others do not, we studied 25 of the world’s school systems, including 10 of the top performers. We examined what these high-performing school systems have in common and what tools they use to improve student outcomes.

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The experiences of these top school systems suggest that three things matter most: 1) getting the right people to become teachers, 2) developing them into effective instructors, and 3) ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.

These systems demonstrate that the best practices for achieving these three things work irrespective of the culture in which they are applied. They demonstrate that substantial improvement in outcomes is possible in a short period of time and that applying these best practices universally could have enormous impact in improving failing school systems, wherever they might be located.

Download the full report on which this article is based, How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top in English (PDF–9.7MB), French (PDF–3.5MB), or Spanish  (PDF–1.1MB).

Michael Barber is an alumnus of McKinsey’s London office, and Mona Mourshed is a director in the Washington, DC, office.

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World University Rankings 2024

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 include 1,906 universities across 108 countries and regions.

The table is based on our new WUR 3.0 methodology , which includes 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

This year’s ranking analysed more than 134 million citations across 16.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 68,402 scholars globally. Overall, we collected 411,789 datapoints from more than 2,673 institutions that submitted data.

Trusted worldwide by students, teachers, governments and industry experts, the 2024 league table reveals how the global higher education landscape is shifting.

View the World University Rankings 2024 methodology

The University of Oxford tops the ranking for the eighth year in a row, but others in the top five have seen shifts in their ranks. Stanford University moves up to second place, pushing Harvard University down to fourth.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) climbs up two places to third this year. The University of Cambridge slips to fifth place, after being in joint third place last year.

The highest new entry is Italy’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, ranked in the 301-350 bracket. However, the majority of the institutions joining the ranking for the first time this year are in Asia.

The US is the most-represented country overall, with 169 institutions, and also the most-represented in the top 200 (56). With 91 institutions, India is now the fourth most-represented nation, overtaking China (86).

Four countries enter the ranking for the first time – all of them in Europe. The addition of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Armenia is in contrast to last year’s trend when all the new entrants were from Africa.

Stanford University leads the teaching pillar, while the universities of Oxford and Cambridge come top for research environment. The research quality pillar, which is the newly renamed citations pillar, sees MIT in first place.

The University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates scores highest in international outlook, while 28 institutions receive a top score of 100 for the industry pillar.

In addition to the 1,904 ranked institutions, a further 769 universities are listed with “reporter” status, meaning that they provided data but did not meet our eligibility criteria to receive a rank, and agreed to be displayed as a reporter in the final table.

Read our analysis of the World University Rankings 2024 results

Download a copy of the World University Rankings 2024 digital report

To raise your university’s global profile with Times Higher Education , contact [email protected]

To unlock the data behind THE’s rankings and access a range of analytical and benchmarking tools, click here

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More than ever, in 2022 it will be critical to focus on strengthening the fabric of our global education system in order to achieve positive outcomes—particularly through an increased focus on data-informed decisionmaking. We have seen a renewed focus on different forms of data that are critical to enhanced education outcomes, such as real-time performance data, which allow teachers and other decisionmakers to course-adjust to the needs of learners to better support their educational journeys. Additionally, high-quality program cost data are needed for decisionmakers to plan, budget, and choose the most cost-effective interventions.

One way we are seeing these areas strengthened is through innovative financing for education, such as impact bonds , which require data to operate at full potential. This year, pooled funding through outcomes funds—a scaled version of impact bonds—should make a particularly big splash. The Education Outcomes Fund organization is slated to launch programs in Ghana and Sierra Leone, and we also expect to see the launch of country-specific outcomes funds for education such as OFFER (Outcome Fund For Education Results) in Colombia, the Back-to-School Outcomes Fund in India, and another fund in Chile. At the Center for Universal Education, we will be following these innovations closely and look forward to the insights that they will bring to the education sector.

As we look ahead to 2022, one continued challenge for many families is navigating the uncharted territory of supporting children’s learning with a growing number of school closures . But while the pandemic forced an abrupt slowdown in modern life, it also provided an opportunity to reexamine how we can prioritize learning and healthy development both in and out of school. Moreover, the cascading effects of the pandemic are disproportionally affecting families living in communities challenged by decades of discrimination and disinvestment—and are very likely to widen already existing educational inequities in worrisome ways.

One innovative approach to providing enriching learning opportunities beyond school walls that address the inequities in our current systems is Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL) —installations and programming that promote children and families’ learning through play in the public realm. A current focus for PLL at Brookings is measuring the impact of these spaces to show that PLL works and to garner greater investment in them. To that end, Brookings and its partners developed a framework and an initial set of indicators from both the learning science and placemaking perspectives to help assess the positive effects of PLL on learning outcomes , as well as its potential to enhance social interaction and public life in revitalized spaces. The framework will continue to evolve as we learn from communities that are testing the expansion and adaptation of PLL—this important work is just beginning.

The pandemic highlighted several trends in education that promise to be the focus of future policy and practice in 2022 and beyond: the importance of skills that supplement the learning of content, systemic inequities in education systems, and the role of digital technology in the education of the future. It has become increasingly clear that the memorization of content alone will not prepare children for the jobs and society of the future. As noted in a Brookings report “ A new path for education reform, ” in an automated world, manufacturing jobs and even preliminary medical diagnoses or legal contracts can be performed by computers and robots. Students who can work collaboratively—with strong communication skills, critical thinking, and creative innovation—will be highly valued. Mission statements from around the globe are starting to promote a “whole child” approach to education that will encourage the learning of a breadth of skills better aligning the education sector with needs from the business sector.

The past year also demonstrated weaknesses and inequalities inherent in remote learning that I’ll be closely tracking in the years to come. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that virtual learning presents risks to social-emotional learning . Further, research suggests that academic progress during the pandemic slowed such that students demonstrated only 35 to 50 percent of the gains they normally achieve in mathematics and 60 to 68 percent in reading. The losses are not experienced uniformly , with children from underresourced environments falling behind their more resourced peers.

The failure of remote learning also raises questions about the place of digital learning in the classroom. Learning will become more and more hybrid over time, and keeping an eye on advances in technology—especially regarding augmented reality and the metaverse—will be particularly important, as both have real consequences for the classrooms.

In 2022, I’ll be focusing on one group of children in particular–refugees–who are among those children who have historically had the least access to preprimary education. The pandemic has affected them disproportionally , as it pushed them and their families into poverty and deprived them from most forms of education during the school closures.

While much more investment in early childhood education research and evaluation is needed to improve evidence and channel scarce resources effectively, there are a few important efforts to watch. A report commissioned by Theirworld last year provided an overview of the sector and focused on a critical gap and opportunity to address the inequity of access to early childhood education in refugee settings by better supporting teachers and community workers. This year, Theirworld and partners will pursue two of the report’s recommendations–making the science of early childhood brain development widely accessible in refugee communities and building the evidence base on what works in supporting early childhood education teachers and the young refugee children they teach.

The report was informed by existing initiatives including Ahlan Simsim, which in 2017 received the largest known grant to early education in a humanitarian context. While the evaluation of Ahlan Simsim will not be complete until two more years, the Global Ties for Children research center, Sesame Workshop, and the International Rescue Committee will share critical insights into their learning to date in a forthcoming episode of the podcast the Impact Room .

This coming year I’ll be focused on how education systems can prepare for future disruptions, whatever the cause, with more deliberateness. The past two years of the COVID pandemic have seen education systems throughout the globe struggle to find ways to continue schooling. Additionally, there have been other public health crises, natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and severe storms, and wars and terrorism in different parts of the world that have gravely tested school systems’ ability to minimize the cost of catastrophes on students and teachers. Finding safer temporary learning places outside the school and using technologies such as radio, TV broadcasts, and online learning tools have helped, but quick fixes with little preparation are not effective approaches for sustaining and advancing learning gains.

In the age of broadcast and digital technologies, there are many more ways to meet the challenges of future emergency situations, but life- and education-saving solutions must be part of the way school systems operate—built into their structures, their staffing, their budgets, and their curricula. By preparing for the emergencies that are likely to happen, we can persevere to reach learning goals for all children.

By the close of 2021, a number of studies began to document the impact of COVID-19 on girls’ educational trajectories across the Global South. These studies point to promising trends –lower than expected dropout rates and reenrollment rates similar to (if not greater than) those of boys–while still highlighting the particular challenges faced by adolescent girls and girls living in poverty , conflict, and crisis .

In 2022, it will be critical to continue to generate more nuanced evidence—carefully considering questions such as “for which girls,” “where,” “when,” and “why.” And then we must put this knowledge to use to protect and promote girls’ and young women’s rights not just to education, but to participate and thrive in the world around them. Ensuring that marginalized girls and young women become transformative agents in improving their lives and livelihoods—as well as those of their families and communities—requires us to develop new strategies for learning and acting together.

At the Center for Universal Education, this means strengthening our work with local leaders in girls’ education: promoting gender-transformative research through the Echidna Global Scholars Program ; expanding the collective impact of our 33 Echidna alumni; and co-constructing a learning and action community to explore together how to improve beliefs, practices, programs, and policies so that marginalized adolescent girls’ can develop and exercise agency in pursuing their own pathways.

Going into year three of COVID-19, in 2022 I’m interested to see whether countries will transform their education systems or largely leave them the way they are. Will leaders of education systems tinker around the edges of change but mostly attempt a return to a prepandemic “normal,” or will they take advantage of this global rupture in the status quo to replace antiquated educational institutions and approaches with significant structural improvement?

In relation to this, one topic I’ll be watching in particular is how countries treat their teachers. How will policymakers, the media, parent councils, and others frame teachers’ work in 2022? In which locations will teachers be diminished versus where will they be defended as invaluable assets? How will countries learn from implications of out-of-school children (including social isolation and child care needs)? Will teachers remain appreciated in their communities but treated poorly in the material and political conditions of their work? Or will countries hold them dear—demanding accountability while supporting and rewarding them for quality work?

I’m interested in learning more about how pandemic lockdowns have impacted students. So far, we’ve only gotten very general data dealing with questions that are, in my opinion, too simple to be worthwhile. It’s all been about good and bad, positive and negative, learning loss and achievement. But I’ll be watching for more nuanced studies, which ask about specific ways increased time away from school has impacted social-emotional development. How do those results differ between gender, race, socioeconomic status, and geographic location? I suspect we’re going to learn some things about the relationship between home environment and school environment that will challenge a lot of our taken-for-granted assumptions.

In 2022, I’ll be tracking emerging evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 school closures on children and youth. Several researchers, including my co-authors and me , have provided estimates of the school closures’ impact on student learning losses, unemployment, future earnings, and productivity globally. But only recently are researchers analyzing actual evidence of learning losses , and an early systematic review finds that “Although robust and empirical research on COVID-19-related student learning loss is limited, learning loss itself may not be.”

Likewise, there is little rigorous reviews of remote learning tools’ and platforms’ impact on student learning during the school closures. After the pandemic, it is almost certain that remote and hybrid learning will continue—at a minimum occasionally and often periodically—in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. It is urgent that we build the evidence base to help education decisionmakers and practitioners provide effective, tailored learning experiences for all students.

Finally, a key issue for education is how to redesign curricula so that this generation (and future generations) of students gain a key set of skills and competencies required for technologically-advancing labor markets and societies. While foundational literacy and numeracy skills continue to be essential for learning, a strong foundational knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is ever more important in the 21st century, and I look forward to contributing research this year to help make the case for curricula redesign efforts.

I will be interested to see how parent-teacher relationships progress after the pandemic has (hopefully) faded into the background. COVID-19 has had an inescapable impact on the way we deliver education globally, but none more so than on how education leaders and teachers interact with students and their families.

For the past three years, I have been studying family-school collaboration. Together with my colleagues and partners, we have surveyed nearly 25,000 parents and 6,000 teachers in 10 countries around the world and found that the vast majority of teachers, parents, and caregivers want to work together more closely. Quality family-school collaboration has the potential to significantly improve educational outcomes, spur important discussions on the overall purpose of school, and smooth the path for schools and families to navigate change together. From community schools in New Mexico  to text message updates from teachers in India , new innovations are popping up every day—in every corner of the world. I’m excited to see what the future holds for family-school collaboration!

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Global Economy and Development

Center for Universal Education

Modupe (Mo) Olateju, Grace Cannon

April 15, 2024

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April 3, 2024

Darcy Hutchins, Emily Markovich Morris, Laura Nora, Carolina Campos, Adelaida Gómez Vergara, Nancy G. Gordon, Esmeralda Macana, Karen Robertson

March 28, 2024

10 best countries for education that are worth leaving everything behind for

Some countries are better at educating children than the rest. This shouldn’t be but it is.

The hard truth is today, the best countries for education are years and even decades ahead in knowing what — and what not — to teach.

But while we’ve heard our share of tales from aunties and uncles on what are the best countries for education, these aren’t exactly the most trusted ways to get real insight into what makes a country’s schools, colleges and universities so good.

How to find the best countries for education

“Best” is subjective. However, there are several factors we can consider:

• programmes offered
• language of instruction
• research opportunities
• scholarships
• employment opportunities

What we mean by the best countries for education is often tied to how our learning helps us fulfil our full potential while preparing us for the future.

And yes, our full potential and future careers differ from one to another, something that the best countries for education also recognise and help realise.

But with 193 countries and many different ways of measuring them, how do you know which one to rely on?

The long answer would get you deep-diving into the scientific metrics of each ranking and understanding how these were used to determine the best countries for education today.

The short answer is you should probably rely on a few lists and rankings — this is so you can pick and choose the factors that matter most to you.

A good place to start is the choices made by the 6.4 million students who took the big and bold step to study abroad in 2022 .

Leaving everything you know and love behind is not easy — which is why their choices make for a great indicator of the best countries for education in the world.

2023 Nobel prize for medicine laureate Katalin Kariko moved from Hungary to the US, one of the best countries for education, to pursue research in mRNA technology, which would later lead to the development of the first COVID-19 vaccines. Source: AFP

10 best countries for education in the world 

According to US News, the US is home to eight of the top 10 Best Global Universities. It also h as the highest number of Nobel Laureates compared to any other country in the world.

Over a million international students choose to study in the US every year.

Fields such as computer science, engineering, business administration, law, and the arts stand out as the most popular subjects among international students in the country.

Being the home of universities like Harvard University, University of Oxford, Yale University, and MIT, the US is undoubtedly one of the best countries in the world for education. 

The UK is one of the world’s most popular destinations to study higher education, with more than 500,000 international students enrolling each year. Source: AFP

The UK is the world’s second most popular destination, with about half a million international students enrolled in various programmes. 

With many prestigious universities and institutions, the UK offers high-quality courses and degrees across various disciplines.

These include accounting, finance, psychology, sports science, nursing, animation, etc. 

According to the QS World University Rankings 2023 , some of the UK’s top universities placed in the world’s top 10:

• University of Oxford (#2)
• University of Cambridge (#4)
• Imperial College London (#6)

3. Germany 

Germany stands out as an unparalleled destination for those seeking a top-tier education in a diverse and dynamic environment.

It is one of the few countries that provide high-quality, industry-relevant education at low or no cost.

Many scholarships are also available to international students, attracting talents from around the world.

Here, universities regularly receive awards in teaching and research, so you’re sure to have an enriching educational experience .

Germany’s unwavering dedication to exceptional education, diverse cultural experiences, and promising career prospects position it as an excellent choice for international scholars. It also holds a reputation as one of the most welcoming countries for students from abroad.

If you are looking to study in Germany, consider these universities: 

• Technical University of Munich
• Heidelberg University

Every year thousands of international students travel to Canada for a study abroad experience like no other. Source: AFP

Diverse, more affordable and welcoming, Canada has become a top study destination for many students .

Many are drawn to Canadian universities as they serve as a clear pathway to getting permanent residence in the country, thanks to the Post-Graduation Work Permit Programme (PGWPP).

In QS and Times Higher Education rankings, Canadian universities have consistently performed well for the strengths of their research and teaching.

According to Times Higher Education, four of its universities are within the top 100 globally:

• University of Toronto (#18)
• University of British Columbia (#40)
• McGill University (#46)
• McMaster University (#85)

France is known for so much more than macarons and the Eiffel Tower. It is known as one of the best countries for education in the world. 

This stems from the fact that education is one of the most fundamental rights in France, and it is mandatory from the age of six to sixteen . 

A few of its universities rival even renowned institutions like MIT; for instance, the University of Paris-Saclay and Ecole Polytechnique are recognised for their world-class engineering programmes.

Embark on your educational journey abroad in France by selecting from some of the nation’s finest universities, including:

• Sorbonne Universite
• Universite de Paris
• Universite Paris Saclay

Australia is one of the best countries for education in the world. Source: AFP

6. Australia 

Australia is not only the world’s sixth-largest country by land, but it is also the sixth country on the list of best countries for education in the world.

Not only does it stand out for its diverse programmes encompassing engineering, administration, architecture, media, business, communication, and the arts, but also the diversity of its people.

Close to one in three people (29.3% of Australia’s population) in Australia were born abroad.

With a notable presence of seven Australian universities within the top 100 of the 2022 QS World University rankings, Australia’s educational offerings are positioned among the elite globally.

Here are the best universities in Australia for international students:

• University of Melbourne
• University of Sydney 
• University of Queensland

Japan is not only one of the best countries for education, it is also one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Source: AFP

Japan is home to universities consistently ranking among the top globally, ensuring a high-quality education, such as To hoku University Miyagi, The University of Tokyo, and Osaka University.

These are the top three universities in the country, as ranked by Times Higher Education .

While not the most budget-friendly option, the tuition fees in Japan are much lower than those in other popular study destinations such as the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.

The total expenses, including tuition and cost of living, can vary significantly based on your choice of city and the university you go to.

For example, Tokyo is infamous for its high living costs, with rent ranging from approximately 43,000 yen (US$286.77) at the lower end and can go up to 100,000 yen (US$666.90) per month.

The cost of pursuing an undergraduate degree in Japan typically averages around US$23,000, while a master’s degree programme is generally around US$12,000 .

While most university programmes are taught in Japanese, there is an increasing number of English-taught programmes. Here are a number of Japanese universities that offer English programmes:

• Meiji Gakuin University
• International University of Japan
• Waseda University

Denmark is one of the most beautiful and friendliest countries for international students to study in. Source: AFP

A list of the best countries for education would be incomplete without Denmark. How could we miss a country that boasts a whopping 99% literacy rate? 

This high literacy rate is due to the government’s move to make education compulsory for students up to the age of 16.

Here, education is free  — for locals — from kindergarten all the way up to university. 

Aside from being known for its quality education, Denmark has been recognised as one of the happiest countries to study abroad. 

It is one of the most popular destinations for international students, attracting thousands worldwide who seek high-quality education and internationally recognised degrees. The top universities include:

• University of Copenhagen
• Aarhus University
• Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

People walk on a bridge in the red light district of Amsterdam on March 30, 2023. (Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)

9. Netherlands

The Netherlands is home to many excellent universities that are ranked highly by QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education.

This includes the University of Amsterdam, Wageningen University & Research and Leiden University.

The University of Amsterdam is one of the largest and most prestigious universities in the Netherlands. It conducts research across various fields, including social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, and more.

As in its name, Wageningen University & Research emphasises the importance of research, specifically in areas related to agri-food , food production, sustainability, and environmental studies.

The cost of education in the Netherlands is comparatively lower, making it one of the cheapest European countries .

The average tuition fee for a degree programme in the Netherlands for non-EU students is 6,000 euros per year (US$6,361.80).

Cost of living is just as low, around 800 to 1,200 euros per month (US$848.42 to US$1,272.61).

In South Korea, international students can indulge in delicious food while gaining a world-class education. Source: AFP

10. South Korea

South Korea is known to be one of the best countries for education in the world. Now, you can indulge in kimchi and bibimbap as you gain a world-class education. 

The country’s effort to improve its educational system has been a success, with many of its institutions ranking among the best in the world.

This includes Seoul National University, KAIST – Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Korea University.

Here, you can find prestigious universities renowned for their academic excellence, research output, and global reputation. Here are some of the top universities in South Korea:

• Seoul National University (SNU)
• Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
• Korea University

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The World Bank Group is the largest financier of education in the developing world, working in 90 countries and committed to helping them reach SDG4: access to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Education is a human right, a powerful driver of development, and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. It delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income, and is the most important factor to ensure equity and inclusion.

For individuals, education promotes employment, earnings, health, and poverty reduction. Globally, there is a  9% increase in hourly earnings for every extra year of schooling . For societies, it drives long-term economic growth, spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion.  Education is further a powerful catalyst to climate action through widespread behavior change and skilling for green transitions.

Developing countries have made tremendous progress in getting children into the classroom and more children worldwide are now in school. But learning is not guaranteed, as the  2018 World Development Report  (WDR) stressed.

Making smart and effective investments in people’s education is critical for developing the human capital that will end extreme poverty. At the core of this strategy is the need to tackle the learning crisis, put an end to  Learning Poverty , and help youth acquire the advanced cognitive, socioemotional, technical and digital skills they need to succeed in today’s world. 

In low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in  Learning Poverty  (that is, the proportion of 10-year-old children that are unable to read and understand a short age-appropriate text) increased from 57% before the pandemic to an estimated  70%  in 2022.

However, learning is in crisis. More than 70 million more people were pushed into poverty during the COVID pandemic, a billion children lost a year of school , and three years later the learning losses suffered have not been recouped .  If a child cannot read with comprehension by age 10, they are unlikely to become fluent readers. They will fail to thrive later in school and will be unable to power their careers and economies once they leave school.

The effects of the pandemic are expected to be long-lasting. Analysis has already revealed deep losses, with international reading scores declining from 2016 to 2021 by more than a year of schooling.  These losses may translate to a 0.68 percentage point in global GDP growth.  The staggering effects of school closures reach beyond learning. This generation of children could lose a combined total of  US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings  in present value or the equivalent of 17% of today’s global GDP – a sharp rise from the 2021 estimate of a US$17 trillion loss. 

Action is urgently needed now – business as usual will not suffice to heal the scars of the pandemic and will not accelerate progress enough to meet the ambitions of SDG 4. We are urging governments to implement ambitious and aggressive Learning Acceleration Programs to get children back to school, recover lost learning, and advance progress by building better, more equitable and resilient education systems.

Last Updated: Mar 25, 2024

The World Bank’s global education strategy is centered on ensuring learning happens – for everyone, everywhere. Our vision is to ensure that everyone can achieve her or his full potential with access to a quality education and lifelong learning. To reach this, we are helping countries build foundational skills like literacy, numeracy, and socioemotional skills – the building blocks for all other learning. From early childhood to tertiary education and beyond – we help children and youth acquire the skills they need to thrive in school, the labor market and throughout their lives.

Investing in the world’s most precious resource – people – is paramount to ending poverty on a livable planet.  Our experience across more than 100 countries bears out this robust connection between human capital, quality of life, and economic growth: when countries strategically invest in people and the systems designed to protect and build human capital at scale, they unlock the wealth of nations and the potential of everyone.

Building on this, the World Bank supports resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. We do this by generating and disseminating evidence, ensuring alignment with policymaking processes, and bridging the gap between research and practice.

The World Bank is the largest source of external financing for education in developing countries, with a portfolio of about $26 billion in 94 countries including IBRD, IDA and Recipient-Executed Trust Funds. IDA operations comprise 62% of the education portfolio.

The investment in FCV settings has increased dramatically and now accounts for 26% of our portfolio.

World Bank projects reach at least 425 million students -one-third of students in low- and middle-income countries.

The World Bank’s Approach to Education

Five interrelated pillars of a well-functioning education system underpin the World Bank’s education policy approach:

• Learners are prepared and motivated to learn;
• Teachers are prepared, skilled, and motivated to facilitate learning and skills acquisition;
• Learning resources (including education technology) are available, relevant, and used to improve teaching and learning;
• Schools are safe and inclusive; and
• Education Systems are well-managed, with good implementation capacity and adequate financing.

The Bank is already helping governments design and implement cost-effective programs and tools to build these pillars.

Our Principles:

• We pursue systemic reform supported by political commitment to learning for all children. 
• We focus on equity and inclusion through a progressive path toward achieving universal access to quality education, including children and young adults in fragile or conflict affected areas , those in marginalized and rural communities,  girls and women , displaced populations,  students with disabilities , and other vulnerable groups.
• We focus on results and use evidence to keep improving policy by using metrics to guide improvements.   
• We want to ensure financial commitment commensurate with what is needed to provide basic services to all. 
• We invest wisely in technology so that education systems embrace and learn to harness technology to support their learning objectives.   

Laying the groundwork for the future

Country challenges vary, but there is a menu of options to build forward better, more resilient, and equitable education systems.

Countries are facing an education crisis that requires a two-pronged approach: first, supporting actions to recover lost time through remedial and accelerated learning; and, second, building on these investments for a more equitable, resilient, and effective system.

Recovering from the learning crisis must be a political priority, backed with adequate financing and the resolve to implement needed reforms.  Domestic financing for education over the last two years has not kept pace with the need to recover and accelerate learning. Across low- and lower-middle-income countries, the  average share of education in government budgets fell during the pandemic , and in 2022 it remained below 2019 levels.

The best chance for a better future is to invest in education and make sure each dollar is put toward improving learning.  In a time of fiscal pressure, protecting spending that yields long-run gains – like spending on education – will maximize impact.  We still need more and better funding for education.  Closing the learning gap will require increasing the level, efficiency, and equity of education spending—spending smarter is an imperative.

• Education technology  can be a powerful tool to implement these actions by supporting teachers, children, principals, and parents; expanding accessible digital learning platforms, including radio/ TV / Online learning resources; and using data to identify and help at-risk children, personalize learning, and improve service delivery.

Looking ahead

We must seize this opportunity  to reimagine education in bold ways. Together, we can build forward better more equitable, effective, and resilient education systems for the world’s children and youth.

Accelerating Improvements

Supporting countries in establishing time-bound learning targets and a focused education investment plan, outlining actions and investments geared to achieve these goals.

Launched in 2020, the  Accelerator Program  works with a set of countries to channel investments in education and to learn from each other. The program coordinates efforts across partners to ensure that the countries in the program show improvements in foundational skills at scale over the next three to five years. These investment plans build on the collective work of multiple partners, and leverage the latest evidence on what works, and how best to plan for implementation.  Countries such as Brazil (the state of Ceará) and Kenya have achieved dramatic reductions in learning poverty over the past decade at scale, providing useful lessons, even as they seek to build on their successes and address remaining and new challenges.  

Universalizing Foundational Literacy

Readying children for the future by supporting acquisition of foundational skills – which are the gateway to other skills and subjects.

The  Literacy Policy Package (LPP)   consists of interventions focused specifically on promoting acquisition of reading proficiency in primary school. These include assuring political and technical commitment to making all children literate; ensuring effective literacy instruction by supporting teachers; providing quality, age-appropriate books; teaching children first in the language they speak and understand best; and fostering children’s oral language abilities and love of books and reading.

Advancing skills through TVET and Tertiary

Ensuring that individuals have access to quality education and training opportunities and supporting links to employment.

Tertiary education and skills systems are a driver of major development agendas, including human capital, climate change, youth and women’s empowerment, and jobs and economic transformation. A comprehensive skill set to succeed in the 21st century labor market consists of foundational and higher order skills, socio-emotional skills, specialized skills, and digital skills. Yet most countries continue to struggle in delivering on the promise of skills development. 

The World Bank is supporting countries through efforts that address key challenges including improving access and completion, adaptability, quality, relevance, and efficiency of skills development programs. Our approach is via multiple channels including projects, global goods, as well as the Tertiary Education and Skills Program . Our recent reports including Building Better Formal TVET Systems and STEERing Tertiary Education provide a way forward for how to improve these critical systems.

Addressing Climate Change

Mainstreaming climate education and investing in green skills, research and innovation, and green infrastructure to spur climate action and foster better preparedness and resilience to climate shocks.

Our approach recognizes that education is critical for achieving effective, sustained climate action. At the same time, climate change is adversely impacting education outcomes. Investments in education can play a huge role in building climate resilience and advancing climate mitigation and adaptation. Climate change education gives young people greater awareness of climate risks and more access to tools and solutions for addressing these risks and managing related shocks. Technical and vocational education and training can also accelerate a green economic transformation by fostering green skills and innovation. Greening education infrastructure can help mitigate the impact of heat, pollution, and extreme weather on learning, while helping address climate change. 

Examples of this work are projects in Nigeria (life skills training for adolescent girls), Vietnam (fostering relevant scientific research) , and Bangladesh (constructing and retrofitting schools to serve as cyclone shelters).

Strengthening Measurement Systems

Enabling countries to gather and evaluate information on learning and its drivers more efficiently and effectively.

The World Bank supports initiatives to help countries effectively build and strengthen their measurement systems to facilitate evidence-based decision-making. Examples of this work include:

(1) The  Global Education Policy Dashboard (GEPD) : This tool offers a strong basis for identifying priorities for investment and policy reforms that are suited to each country context by focusing on the three dimensions of practices, policies, and politics.

• Highlights gaps between what the evidence suggests is effective in promoting learning and what is happening in practice in each system; and
• Allows governments to track progress as they act to close the gaps.

The GEPD has been implemented in 13 education systems already – Peru, Rwanda, Jordan, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sierra Leone, Niger, Gabon, Jordan and Chad – with more expected by the end of 2024.

(2)  Learning Assessment Platform (LeAP) : LeAP is a one-stop shop for knowledge, capacity-building tools, support for policy dialogue, and technical staff expertise to support student achievement measurement and national assessments for better learning.

Supporting Successful Teachers

Helping systems develop the right selection, incentives, and support to the professional development of teachers.

Currently, the World Bank Education Global Practice has over 160 active projects supporting over 18 million teachers worldwide, about a third of the teacher population in low- and middle-income countries. In 12 countries alone, these projects cover 16 million teachers, including all primary school teachers in Ethiopia and Turkey, and over 80% in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

A World Bank-developed classroom observation tool, Teach, was designed to capture the quality of teaching in low- and middle-income countries. It is now 3.6 million students.

While Teach helps identify patterns in teacher performance, Coach leverages these insights to support teachers to improve their teaching practice through hands-on in-service teacher professional development (TPD).

Our recent report on Making Teacher Policy Work proposes a practical framework to uncover the black box of effective teacher policy and discusses the factors that enable their scalability and sustainability.

 Supporting Education Finance Systems

Strengthening country financing systems to mobilize resources for education and make better use of their investments in education.

Our approach is to bring together multi-sectoral expertise to engage with ministries of education and finance and other stakeholders to develop and implement effective and efficient public financial management systems; build capacity to monitor and evaluate education spending, identify financing bottlenecks, and develop interventions to strengthen financing systems; build the evidence base on global spending patterns and the magnitude and causes of spending inefficiencies; and develop diagnostic tools as public goods to support country efforts.

Working in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent (FCV) Contexts

The massive and growing global challenge of having so many children living in conflict and violent situations requires a response at the same scale and scope. Our education engagement in the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) context, which stands at US$5.35 billion, has grown rapidly in recent years, reflecting the ever-increasing importance of the FCV agenda in education. Indeed, these projects now account for more than 25% of the World Bank education portfolio.

Education is crucial to minimizing the effects of fragility and displacement on the welfare of youth and children in the short-term and preventing the emergence of violent conflict in the long-term. 

Support to Countries Throughout the Education Cycle

Our support to countries covers the entire learning cycle, to help shape resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. 

The ongoing  Supporting  Egypt  Education Reform project , 2018-2025, supports transformational reforms of the Egyptian education system, by improving teaching and learning conditions in public schools. The World Bank has invested $500 million in the project focused on increasing access to quality kindergarten, enhancing the capacity of teachers and education leaders, developing a reliable student assessment system, and introducing the use of modern technology for teaching and learning. Specifically, the share of Egyptian 10-year-old students, who could read and comprehend at the global minimum proficiency level, increased to 45 percent in 2021.

In  Nigeria , the $75 million  Edo  Basic Education Sector and Skills Transformation (EdoBESST)  project, running from 2020-2024, is focused on improving teaching and learning in basic education. Under the project, which covers 97 percent of schools in the state, there is a strong focus on incorporating digital technologies for teachers. They were equipped with handheld tablets with structured lesson plans for their classes. Their coaches use classroom observation tools to provide individualized feedback. Teacher absence has reduced drastically because of the initiative. Over 16,000 teachers were trained through the project, and the introduction of technology has also benefited students.

Through the $235 million  School Sector Development Program  in  Nepal  (2017-2022), the number of children staying in school until Grade 12 nearly tripled, and the number of out-of-school children fell by almost seven percent. During the pandemic, innovative approaches were needed to continue education. Mobile phone penetration is high in the country. More than four in five households in Nepal have mobile phones. The project supported an educational service that made it possible for children with phones to connect to local radio that broadcast learning programs.

From 2017-2023, the $50 million  Strengthening of State Universities  in  Chile  project has made strides to improve quality and equity at state universities. The project helped reduce dropout: the third-year dropout rate fell by almost 10 percent from 2018-2022, keeping more students in school.

The World Bank’s first  Program-for-Results financing in education  was through a $202 million project in  Tanzania , that ran from 2013-2021. The project linked funding to results and aimed to improve education quality. It helped build capacity, and enhanced effectiveness and efficiency in the education sector. Through the project, learning outcomes significantly improved alongside an unprecedented expansion of access to education for children in Tanzania. From 2013-2019, an additional 1.8 million students enrolled in primary schools. In 2019, the average reading speed for Grade 2 students rose to 22.3 words per minute, up from 17.3 in 2017. The project laid the foundation for the ongoing $500 million  BOOST project , which supports over 12 million children to enroll early, develop strong foundational skills, and complete a quality education.

The $40 million  Cambodia  Secondary Education Improvement project , which ran from 2017-2022, focused on strengthening school-based management, upgrading teacher qualifications, and building classrooms in Cambodia, to improve learning outcomes, and reduce student dropout at the secondary school level. The project has directly benefited almost 70,000 students in 100 target schools, and approximately 2,000 teachers and 600 school administrators received training.

The World Bank is co-financing the $152.80 million  Yemen  Restoring Education and Learning Emergency project , running from 2020-2024, which is implemented through UNICEF, WFP, and Save the Children. It is helping to maintain access to basic education for many students, improve learning conditions in schools, and is working to strengthen overall education sector capacity. In the time of crisis, the project is supporting teacher payments and teacher training, school meals, school infrastructure development, and the distribution of learning materials and school supplies. To date, almost 600,000 students have benefited from these interventions.

The $87 million  Providing an Education of Quality in  Haiti  project supported approximately 380 schools in the Southern region of Haiti from 2016-2023. Despite a highly challenging context of political instability and recurrent natural disasters, the project successfully supported access to education for students. The project provided textbooks, fresh meals, and teacher training support to 70,000 students, 3,000 teachers, and 300 school directors. It gave tuition waivers to 35,000 students in 118 non-public schools. The project also repaired 19 national schools damaged by the 2021 earthquake, which gave 5,500 students safe access to their schools again.

In 2013, just 5% of the poorest households in  Uzbekistan  had children enrolled in preschools. Thanks to the  Improving Pre-Primary and General Secondary Education Project , by July 2019, around 100,000 children will have benefitted from the half-day program in 2,420 rural kindergartens, comprising around 49% of all preschool educational institutions, or over 90% of rural kindergartens in the country.

In addition to working closely with governments in our client countries, the World Bank also works at the global, regional, and local levels with a range of technical partners, including foundations, non-profit organizations, bilaterals, and other multilateral organizations. Some examples of our most recent global partnerships include:

UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  Coalition for Foundational Learning

The World Bank is working closely with UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the  Coalition for Foundational Learning  to advocate and provide technical support to ensure foundational learning.  The World Bank works with these partners to promote and endorse the  Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning , a global network of countries committed to halving the global share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 by 2030.

Australian Aid, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, Echida Giving, FCDO, German Cooperation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Conrad Hilton Foundation, LEGO Foundation, Porticus, USAID: Early Learning Partnership

The Early Learning Partnership (ELP) is a multi-donor trust fund, housed at the World Bank.  ELP leverages World Bank strengths—a global presence, access to policymakers and strong technical analysis—to improve early learning opportunities and outcomes for young children around the world.

We help World Bank teams and countries get the information they need to make the case to invest in Early Childhood Development (ECD), design effective policies and deliver impactful programs. At the country level, ELP grants provide teams with resources for early seed investments that can generate large financial commitments through World Bank finance and government resources. At the global level, ELP research and special initiatives work to fill knowledge gaps, build capacity and generate public goods.

UNESCO, UNICEF:  Learning Data Compact

UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank have joined forces to close the learning data gaps that still exist and that preclude many countries from monitoring the quality of their education systems and assessing if their students are learning. The three organizations have agreed to a  Learning Data Compact , a commitment to ensure that all countries, especially low-income countries, have at least one quality measure of learning by 2025, supporting coordinated efforts to strengthen national assessment systems.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS):   Learning Poverty Indicator

Aimed at measuring and urging attention to foundational literacy as a prerequisite to achieve SDG4, this partnership was launched in 2019 to help countries strengthen their learning assessment systems, better monitor what students are learning in internationally comparable ways and improve the breadth and quality of global data on education.

FCDO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  EdTech Hub

Supported by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the EdTech Hub is aimed at improving the quality of ed-tech investments. The Hub launched a rapid response Helpdesk service to provide just-in-time advisory support to 70 low- and middle-income countries planning education technology and remote learning initiatives.

MasterCard Foundation

Our Tertiary Education and Skills  global program, launched with support from the Mastercard Foundation, aims to prepare youth and adults for the future of work and society by improving access to relevant, quality, equitable reskilling and post-secondary education opportunities.  It is designed to reframe, reform, and rebuild tertiary education and skills systems for the digital and green transformation.

The “how to” of inclusive education policy design

Including refugees in national education systems

How generative AI can enrich teaching and learning

Areas of focus.

Digital Technologies

Early Childhood Development

Education Data & Measurement

Education Finance

Education in Fragile, Conflict & Violence Contexts

Girls’ Education

Higher Education

Inclusive Education

Initiatives

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• Tertiary Education and Skills Program
• Service Delivery Indicators
• Evoke: Transforming education to empower youth
• Global Education Policy Dashboard
• Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel
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Collapse and Recovery: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It

BROCHURES & FACT SHEETS

Publication: Realizing Education's Promise: A World Bank Retrospective – August 2023

Education and Climate Change flyer - November 2022

Learning Losses Brochure - October 2022

World Bank Group Education Fact Sheet - September 2022

STAY CONNECTED

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Global Education Newsletter - March 2024

What's happening in the World Bank Education Global Practice? Read to learn more.

Human Capital Project

The Human Capital Project is a global effort to accelerate more and better investments in people for greater equity and economic growth.

Impact Evaluations

Research that measures the impact of education policies to improve education in low and middle income countries.

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The many programs and specialties for a master’s degree in education translate into essential administrative roles at schools. Through these specialties, professionals will hone their ability to create curriculums, use educational theory to form school policy, work with special education classes, evaluate students’ emotions through educational psychology and much more.

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