So it hasn't come as much of a surprise to me to hear that according to the OECD's latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), the UK's academic achievement is now decidedly average. Meanwhile Asian economies, led by Shanghai - a city with a population bigger than Sweden - continue to top the rankings. And as for the US, parents there have got more to worry about than even us British.
How can the world's richest countries (on a per capita basis) be doing so badly by comparison? Andreas Schleicher, who runs the OECD's Pisa programme, hit the nail on the head when he spoke to the BBC about priorities. "As a society [they] invest in education rather than consumption" he says, pointing out that Chinese families, for example, will plough every last penny they can scrape together into educating their children. "What you have in Asian societies is the willingness to sacrifice the present for a better future," he says.
That's an important point and one that long-term investors would do well to pay attention to. It suggests that the great shift in global power that is taking place has much further to run, as vast armies of highly intelligent Asian workers take their places in the workforce. Such workforces will not just build but design great products for expansive Asian companies - companies that will throw down the gauntlet to Western multinationals and start beating them at their own game. Today, very few Chinese companies are successful on a global basis, but like Japanese and Korean companies before them, they will be. The next Apple or Nike could well be Chinese.
The Pisa scores should also encourage us to look more deeply at how our own economy works, as we do in this week's cover feature, because there are many who question the veracity of the ongoing UK recovery, driven largely by consumption rather than anything more meaningful. Consumption shouldn't be dismissed entirely of course - China, too, is trying to rebalance its economy, because investment can only take its economic development so far. But dipping into the rainy-day fund and taking on debt to fund a shopping spree, as we seem to be, won't underpin a lasting recovery - and I'd rather be investing in those economies that prioritise long-term improvement over instant gratification.
