The quality and relevance of educationare paramount to achieve economic growth. Internationalresearch shows that the subject matter learned and skillsetdeveloped in the classroom is the foundation for futuresuccess in the work place, and serves as a superiorpredictor of economic growth compared with the number ofyears of school. One recent study, using a database ofcomparable test scores for over 50 countries, finds that asingle standard deviation difference in tests scores betweencountries equates to roughly 2 percentage points in annuallong-term Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. Thesefindings hold true across high-income, middle-income, andlow-income countries and all geographical regions. Despitesignificant investments in formal education, economic growthin the region has slowed in recent years and there is a needfor improved labor productivity.
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