Even countries that have made progress in one aspect of education can still find themselves lagging behind in other areas. In some countries, as many as half of young people who leave full-time education on completion of secondary school do so with low literacy skills. While most young people in OECD countries now graduate from secondary school, worrying numbers still lack certain basic skills. One way to measure quality of education systems is to see how many people with upper-secondary school qualifications struggle with complex written materials. The OECD has identified a range of indicators of countries' progress towards lifelong learning.
Most countries do well on some and less well on others.
These four states are also among the OECD countries spending the most on education. Students are using computers and the Internet for an increasing range of educational tasks. Even in countries with high average rates of home access, there are sharp differences between social groups. In the United States, children from better-off families increasingly use computers at home, while children from poorer families are less likely to use computers for homework. So, schools can play an important role in giving access to computers to those who would not get it outside.