Asia-Pacific teenagers top OECD tests
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
David Turner from London
Taiwan has topped a prestigious international league table of 15-year-olds' mathematical ability, vaulting ahead of far richer countries.
The island state's performance in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Pisa tests of mathematics and reading carried out in 2006 and released on Tuesday, reinforces its reputation as a high-tech Asian tiger.
Taiwan also earns fourth place in the parallel Pisa science rankings, published last week, although in reading it is a mere 16th.
Asia-Pacific's strong showing is one of the clearest themes of the Pisa survey, which was carried out in 57 countries that account for 90 per cent of the world gross domestic product. The region contributes five of the top 10 in the mathematics and science league tables, and four of the top 10 in reading - thanks to strong contributions from Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao, Australia and New Zealand. Mainland China did not participate.
But the league tables show Finland is the most consistently high performer - repeating its sterling performance in the last survey in 2003. It comes top in science, and second in maths and in reading - where it is bested only by South Korea.
The US, the world's largest economy, is below the OECD average in science and maths, and fails even to make the tables in reading because a misprint in the test confused too many students and invalidated the results.
The UK is around the OECD average in reading and maths, but a little above average in science.
Germany, whose poor performance in the first Pisa tests back in 2000 provoked anguished soul-searching among its politicians, performs respectably rather than outstandingly. It is around the OECD average in maths and reading, but a little above in science. France achieves the average in all three categories, but no more.
The OECD is rather shy of making comparisons with previous surveys, despite hundreds of pages of analysis of the tests. But it does conclude with disappointment that performance in reading has remained "broadly similar" between 2000 and 2006. The report concludes: "This, in itself, is noteworthy because most countries have significantly increased their investment in education in recent years." But South Korea and Poland are shining exceptions: their reading results have improved strongly, both in absolute terms and relative to other countries.
Syndication arrangement with FE
Taiwan has topped a prestigious international league table of 15-year-olds' mathematical ability, vaulting ahead of far richer countries.
The island state's performance in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Pisa tests of mathematics and reading carried out in 2006 and released on Tuesday, reinforces its reputation as a high-tech Asian tiger.
Taiwan also earns fourth place in the parallel Pisa science rankings, published last week, although in reading it is a mere 16th.
Asia-Pacific's strong showing is one of the clearest themes of the Pisa survey, which was carried out in 57 countries that account for 90 per cent of the world gross domestic product. The region contributes five of the top 10 in the mathematics and science league tables, and four of the top 10 in reading - thanks to strong contributions from Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao, Australia and New Zealand. Mainland China did not participate.
But the league tables show Finland is the most consistently high performer - repeating its sterling performance in the last survey in 2003. It comes top in science, and second in maths and in reading - where it is bested only by South Korea.
The US, the world's largest economy, is below the OECD average in science and maths, and fails even to make the tables in reading because a misprint in the test confused too many students and invalidated the results.
The UK is around the OECD average in reading and maths, but a little above average in science.
Germany, whose poor performance in the first Pisa tests back in 2000 provoked anguished soul-searching among its politicians, performs respectably rather than outstandingly. It is around the OECD average in maths and reading, but a little above in science. France achieves the average in all three categories, but no more.
The OECD is rather shy of making comparisons with previous surveys, despite hundreds of pages of analysis of the tests. But it does conclude with disappointment that performance in reading has remained "broadly similar" between 2000 and 2006. The report concludes: "This, in itself, is noteworthy because most countries have significantly increased their investment in education in recent years." But South Korea and Poland are shining exceptions: their reading results have improved strongly, both in absolute terms and relative to other countries.
Syndication arrangement with FE