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Paris (pte026/07.12.2004/11:30) - Finland has the best school system, according to the first results of a survey. The study of 40 countries, carried out by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) http://www.pisa.oecd.org , showed Finland top overall in maths, reading and science. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, PISA is a three-yearly appraisal of 15 year olds in the principal industralised countries, organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economic grouping. It aims to assess the knowledge and skills needed for full participation in society, rather than mastery of a curriculum.
The focus of the 2003 study was mathematics. Students were tested on problems mainly set in real-world situations, covering space and shape, change and relationships, quantity and uncertainty. Although Korea had a slightly higher mean score than Finland, Finland came top on overall proficiency, with Korea in second place and Canada in third. Indonesia was bottom. Finland was also top in "reading literacy", followed by Korea, Canada and Liechtenstein. Once again, Indonesia was last. In science, four countries had "statistically indistinguishable high average performances": Finland, Japan, Hong Kong-China and Korea.
The OECD used seven proficiency levels in increasing order of skill, from "below Level 1" to "Level 6". Half or more of the students surveyed reached at least Level 4 in Finland, Hong Kong-China and Korea. Only 3 per cent reached this level in Mexico, and percentages were even lower in Indonesia and Tunisia. In most of the countries that are members of the OECD, at least 75 per cent of students reached Level 2, but more than a quarter were unable to complete the tasks in Italy, Portugal and the United States. "These students fail to demonstrate consistently that they have baseline mathematical skills," the report said.
The report by the OECD also considered gender differences. In maths, boys outperformed the girls. However, in reading girls had "significantly higher average performances" in all countries except Liechtenstein. Iceland saw the biggest gap. The smallest average gender gap was in science, where boys were doing better. Girls performed significantly better than boys only in Finland, Iceland and Tunisia.
The study compared all OECD member nations and "partner countries" such as Russia and Brazil. The UK was excluded from the study for failing to provide enough results to meet the test standard.
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