Australia's quality of education needs attention: OECD By Gareth Hutchens Australia's quality of education has been singled out as one of the policy areas most in need of improvement by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 
The analysis has also questioned whether G20 countries will meet their commitment to boost their combined GDP growth by an extra 2 per cent by 2018.
The OECD's Going for Growth 2016 report has been launched on the first day of the G20 finance ministers' meeting in Shanghai, China, and tracks G20 countries' efforts to fulfil a pledge made by leaders in 2014, in Brisbane, Australia, to boost their combined GDP by 2 per cent by 2018.
Australia presided over that meeting with former prime minister Tony Abbott and former treasurer Joe Hockey.
Mr Hockey said, a year later, that if it were not for Australia's leadership at that meeting then global growth would be much slower.
The OECD report says Australia must improve all levels of education - particularly early childhood education - to boost the long-term productive and innovative capacity of its economy.
It says the performance of high-school students in PISA tests in science and reading proficiency is only around the international average, and with a tendency to show a "high variation across students."
It says improving all levels of education "will be crucial" to boost sustainable economic growth.
"Reform should be geared towards increasing the supply and quality of early childhood education as well as towards improving outcomes at the primary and secondary levels," the report says. The OECD international report also says only about 14 per cent, on average across advanced G20 countries, of the reform recommendations in its 2015 issue of Going for Growth have been supported with legislation or budgetary provision, while 36 per cent are in the process of that happening.
It says that those numbers indicate a "marked slowdown" in the pace of reforms in 2015, relative to the pace observed during the period 2013-14.
"Even if one takes into account not only the policy measures fully implemented but also the ones in the process of implementation - which may or may not end up as fully implemented - the pace of reforms would remain below that of the past two years," the report says.