London, UK— More than one in four students in Beijing-Shanghai-JiangsuGuangdong (China), Hong Kong (China), Singapore and Chinese Taipei are top-performing students in mathematics, a higher share than anywhere else, meaning that they can handle tasks that require the ability to formulate complex situations mathematically, using symbolic representations, according to PISA 2015 survey published today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
PISA, the Programme for International Students Assessment, is a triennial survey of 15-year-old students around the world published by OECD. PISA assesses the extent to which 15-year-old students, near the end of their compulsory education, have acquired key knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies. The assessment focuses on the core school subjects of science, reading and mathematics.
Approximately 540 000 students completed the assessment in 2015, representing about 29 million 15-year-olds in the schools of the 72 participating countries and economies.
The PISA 2015 survey focused on science, with reading, mathematics and collaborative problem solving as minor areas of assessment. PISA 2015 also included an assessment of young people’s financial literacy, which was optional for countries and economies.
Singapore outperforms all other participating countries/economies in science. Japan, Estonia, Finland and Canada, in descending order of mean science performance, are the four highest performing OECD countries.
According to the survey, while spending per student in primary and secondary education increased by almost 20% since 2006 in OECD countries alone, only 12 of the 72 countries and economies assessed in PISA have seen their science performance improve over this period.
About 20% of students in OECD countries, on average, do not attain the baseline level of proficiency in reading. This proportion has remained stable since 2009. On average across OECD countries, the gender gap in reading in favor of girls narrowed by 12 points between 2009 and 2015. Boys’ performance improved, particularly among the highest-achieving boys, while girls’ performance deteriorated, particularly among the lowest-achieving girls.
