Education is critical for innovation and adaption in an increasingly competitive and conflicted world economy.

The bottom-line measure for the contribution of education in this respect is a country’s productivity growth. Since March last year, GDP per employed person in Australia has risen at an annual rate of just 0.86 per cent, and in the past five years only 0.3 per cent. Sweden, by comparison, averaged 1.6 per cent and 1.1 per cent over these periods.