Introduction by Dr Lim Teck Ghee

Malaysia recently participated as one of 74 countries/economies in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) assessment. The results for Malaysia which was one of nine countries that carried out the assessment in 2010 unfortunately will only be available next year.

Nonetheless, the outcome – released yesterday -- of this highly regarded education performance survey earlier of 65 countries/economies (posted below) is reproduced from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) website. The survey of reading literacy and maths and science among 15-year olds was based on two-hour tests of a half million students. 

Meanwhile, our Malaysian policy makers should acquaint themselves with the report and the findings. They should especially read the commentary on the survey by the TIME correspondent Peter Gumbel titled ‘China beats out Finland for top marks in Education’.

In his report, Gumble noted that "Among the lessons to be learned was that authorities in both cities (Shanghai and Hong Kong) abandoned their focus on educating a small elite, and instead worked to construct a more inclusive system. They also significantly increased teacher pay and training, reducing the emphasis on rote learning and focusing classroom activities on problem solving???.

In Shanghai, now a pioneer of educational reform, "there has been a sea-change in pedagogy," the OECD said. It pointed out that one new slogan used in classrooms today is: ‘To every question there should be more than a single answer’.

"The stunning success of Shanghai-China, which tops every league table in this assessment by a clear margin, shows what can be achieved with moderate economic resources and in a diverse social context," OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria is quoted as saying in the report.

For readers interested in rankings, below is a list of the top 10 countries/economies.

League Table

1. Shanghai

2. Korea*

3. Finland*

4. Hong Kong

5. Singapore

6. Canada*

7. New Zealand*

8. Japan*

9. Australia*

10. Belgium*

(All entrants, OECD members marked with asterisk)

The province of Shanghai, China, took part for the first time and scored higher in reading than any country. It also topped the table in math and science. More than one-quarter of Shanghai’s 15-year-olds demonstrated advanced mathematical thinking skills to solve complex problems, compared to an OECD average of just 3%.

The Pisa findings include:
 
• Girls read better than boys in every country, by an average of 39 points, the equivalent to one year of schooling. The gender gap has not improved in any country since 2000, and widened in France, Israel, Korea, Portugal and Sweden. This is mirrored in a decline of boy’s enjoyment of reading and their engagement with reading in their leisure time.
 
• The best school systems were the most equitable -- students do well regardless of their socio-economic background. But schools that select students based on ability early show the greatest differences in performance by socio-economic background.

• High performing school systems tend to prioritise teacher pay over smaller class sizes.

• Countries where students repeat grades more often tend to have worse results overall, with the widest gaps between children from poor and better-off families. Making students repeat years is most common in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain.

• High performing systems allow schools to design curricula and establish assessment policies but don’t necessarily allow competition for students.

• Schools with good discipline and better student-teacher relations achieve better reading results.

• Public and private schools achieve similar results, after taking account of their home backgrounds.

• Combining local autonomy and effective accountability seems to produce the best results.

• The percentage of students who said they read for pleasure dropped from 69% in 2000 to 64% in 2009.

To read the article in full, go to ‘Korea and Finland top OECD’s latest PISA survey of education performance’.