By Judith Ugwumadu | 3 December 2013
Asian countries are outperforming the rest of the world in education standards, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has revealed in its latest report on international pupil attainment published today.
In its latest Programme for International Student Assessment report on the state of global education, which focused on maths skills, the OECD said proficiency in this area was a strong predictor of positive outcomes for young adults. It impacts their ability to participate in post-secondary education and their expected future earnings, the think-tank added.
Two Chinese areas – Shanghai and Hong Kong – and Singapore were top in maths, with students in Shanghai scoring the equivalent of nearly three years of schooling above most OECD countries. Top-performing countries in Europe were Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
According to the latest assessments, 25 countries had improved in maths, 25 showed no change, and 14 did worse. It said Brazil, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Tunisia and Turkey had shown a consistent improvement over this period.
Italy, Poland and Portugal also increased their share of top performers and reduced their share of low performers. Germany, Mexico and Turkey also managed to improve the performance of their weakest students, many of whom came from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Publishing the results, OECD secretary general Angel Gurría said: ‘With high levels of youth unemployment, rising inequality and a pressing need to boost growth in many countries, it’s more urgent than ever that young people learn the skills they need to succeed.
‘In a global economy, competitiveness and future job prospects will depend on what people can do with what they know. Young people are the future, so every country must do everything it can to improve its education system and the prospects of future generations.’
The survey also identified several features of what made the ‘best education systems’. In Asia, countries placed great emphasis on selecting and training teachers, encouraging them to work together and prioritised investment in teacher quality over reductions in class sizes. The think-tank added that the region also set clear targets and gave teachers autonomy in the classroom to achieve them.
