Russia and HSE Researchers Join the International Assessment of Adult Competencies Programme

On October 8, 2013, the results of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will be published in Russia and several other countries. In Russia, the presentation will take place at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

PIACC has been active since 2007 under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For the first time, Russia participated in the 2013 programme. The study in Russia was carried out by the HSE Institute of Education, with the support of the HSE Center for Fundamental Research and close participation of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.

The goal of PIAAC is to assess and compare adult basic skills and broad range of competencies around the world, and to understand how freely adults are able to use both traditional and modern socio-cultural tools, such as books, computers, and digital technology, for information reception and transfer. Researchers evaluated user skills in three areas: reading literacy, mathematical numeracy, and the ability to solve problems in a technological environment (digital, internet, etc.) The results of this competency study will allow educators to define their directions of development, and to outline the priorities of a political solution in various economic spheres.