Thursday, February 3, 2011

World education rankings: which country does best at reading, maths and science?


The OECD's comprehensive world education ranking report, PISA, is out. Find out how each country compares

A pupil in a science lesson
World education rankings show how countries do atreading, maths and science. A pupil in a science lesson. Photograph: David Sillitoe/Guardian
The world education rankings from the OECD are out. The UK is slipping down in maths, reading and science, and has been overtaken by Poland and Norway, this major study of 65 countries reveals today.
Around 470,000 15-year-olds across the world sat a numeracy, literacy and science test last year, the results of which inform the latest Pisa study by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
PISA rankings within OECD
PISA rankings within OECD. Illustration: Paul Scruton for the Guardian
The Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) is highly respected across the globe, and enables politicians and policy-makers to assess how different country's education systems compare.
It shows the UK's reputation as one of the world's best for education is at risk, and has tumbled several places since 2006.
The UK is ranked 25th for reading, 28th for maths and 16th for science. In 2006, when 57 countries were included in the study, it was placed 17th, 24th and 14th respectively. Poland has stretched ahead of the UK in maths, while Norway is now ranked higher in reading and maths.
Andreas Shleicher, head of the Pisa programme, said the picture for the UK was "stagnant at best". "Many other countries have seen quite significant improvement," he added.

1 comment:

  1. I read somewhere that sometimes using literacy scores as a measure of education rankings can be misleading as some countries tend to report lower rates in order to attain more financial aid from the WHO and other organisations like this. Is this true?

    ReplyDelete

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