TeenagersfromtheChinesecityofShanghaihavethebesteducationintheworld,accordingtoamajorinternationalstudyofstandardsininmaths,scienceandliteracyreleasedrecently.
TheOrganisationforEconomicCooperationandDevelopment's“PISA”report,releasedeverythreeyears,studied470,00015-year-oldpupilsin65countriesaroundthemoredevelopedpartsoftheworld.
SouthKoreaandFinlandtoppedthecountryrankingsinthesurveybut,takenseparatelyfromChina,thehugecityofShanghai—takingpartinthesurveyforthefirsttime—cametopinallthreeofthedisciplines.
“Morethanone-quarterofShanghai's15-year-oldsdemonstratedadvancedmathematicalthinkingskillstosolvecomplexproblems,comparedtoanOECDaverageofjustthreepercent,”theOECDsaid.
OtherAsiancountriesandregionsalsoscoredparticularlywell,andOECDeducationexpertEricCharbonniersaidthecontinent'ssuccesswasaresultofeducationalvaluesthatfavourequalityaswellasquality.“InShanghai,acityof20million,theyfollowedpoliciestofightagainstsocialinequality,totargettheschoolsthatwereinmostdifficultyandsendthemthebestperformingheadsandmostexperiencedteachers,”hesaid.
SouthKoreacamesecondincomprehension,fourthinmathsandsixthinscienceandHongKong,Singapore,TaiwanandJapanwerewell-placed.
Finland,whoseeducationalsystemhasbeenhailedbyWesternexperts,remainsthebestperformingEuropeancountry,comingthirdincomprehension,secondinscienceandthirdinmaths.
SevenEuropeancountriesperformedbetterthantheOECDaverage:Belgium,Estonia,Iceland,theNetherlands,Norway,PolandandSwitzerland.Ofthese,Polandwaspraisedformakingrapidprogressthroughschoolreform.
TheUnitedStates,Sweden,Germany,France,Ireland,Denmark,Britain,HungaryandPortugalscoredaroundtheaverageforrichercountries,butpupilsinSwedenandIrelandperformedworsethanthreeyearsago.
“Bettereducationaloutcomesareastrongpredictorforfutureeconomicgrowth,”saidOECDSecretary-GeneralAngelGurria.
Fromwww.hxen.com