I am ever more interested in the issue of data literacy and agree very much with Javiera Atenas from the Open Education Working Group, London who says "Learning how to use data and information is not just a subject among others, it’s an essential part of civic education."

But it is not just learning how to use data and information. Perhaps more critical is how to understand and make critical sense out of data. Take the chart above as an example. The difference in participation in adult education are very substantial and on the face of it Nordic countries lead the way. Interesting too that Germany is well back in the middle of the pack. However I am not sure it is quite as it seems. I suspect the data is compiled from national data by Eurostat from the European Labour Force Survey. The issue may be that different countries classify participation in education in different ways.

When I get a free hour or so I wil try to follow this up. Meanwhile any comments and ideas from readers would be welcome.