Students’ average performance in reading, mathematics and science was largely stable in OECD countries last year, according to the results of the global test. The Paris-based policy’s forum said it was “disappointing” that there had been practically no improvement in OECD countries’ performance since it started the PISA project in 2000. It was all the more galling as per student spending in OECD member countries had risen more than 15 percent over the past decade, the report said. While important, funding was not everything, as demonstrated by the case of Estonia, which was the top-scoring OECD country in reading, despite education spending 30 percent less than the OECD average, the report said. Students’ social and economic background remained a leading factor for success at school last year, with the richest 10 percent of students in OECD countries reading at a level three years ahead of the poorest 10 percent, it said.

Source: Taipei Times December 03, 2019 15:56 UTC