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UK schools still behind in global rankings after 'lost decade'
The UK’s school are still lagging behind the world’s best according to rankings published today.
The influential Pisa tests, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found little progress since the last results, in 2012.
The 2015 rankings monitor reading, maths and science among 15 and 16-year-olds across the world.
The Conservative manifesto promised “to make Britain the best place in the world to study maths, science and engineering, measured by improved performance in the Pisa league tables”.
But the UK is behind high-ranking countries such as Singapore and Finland, as well as Vietnam, Poland and Estonia.
In maths, the UK is ranked 27th, having slipped down a place from three years ago.
In reading, the UK is ranked 22nd, up from 23rd, while science is the UK’s most successful subject — where it is up to 15th place from 21st.
The OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, described the UK’s results as “flat in a changing world”.
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Nick Gibb, the schools minister for England, said: “We know that grammar schools provide a good education for their disadvantaged pupils, which is why we want more pupils from lower income backgrounds to benefit from them.”
However, Russell Hobby, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the results show “a lost decade” of structural change which had “little impact on either standards or equity”, according to the BBC.
He said Pisa offered “strong evidence” that early selection of pupils by schools doesn’t improve standards.
Within the UK, Wales performed the worst within all subjects.
Wales’s education secretary Kirsty Williams said: “We can all agree we are not yet where we want to be.
“While we have seen a 10 point lift in our maths score, the results for science are disappointing.
“Last month I invited the OECD to look at how we are doing in Wales; their advice to me was unambiguous: stay the course, be brave, you are doing the right things.”
The Programme for International Student Assessment tests taken every three years, are becoming increasingly influential.
The top ten countries for reading are:
1. Singapore
2. China: Hong Kong
3. Canada
4. Finland
5. Ireland
6. Estonia
7. South Korea
8. Japan
9. Norway
10. New Zealand
The top ten countries for maths are:
1. Singapore
2. China: Hong Kong
3. China: Macao
4. Taiwan
5. Japan
6. China: Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong
7. South Korea
8. Switzerland
9. Estonia
10. Canada
