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A global list of the best countries in the level of education in which the Arab world does not occupy any advanced position

2019-12-03

We often ask ourselves this question: Which country has the best education system in the world?

But any specific answer to this question may be lacking in objectivity, which could make the International Student Assessment Program (PISA) a good indicator that may be useful in arriving at the desired answer.

This indicator consists of a series of international tests developed by the OECD. Since the launch of the program in 2000, these tests have been conducted at the age of 15, every three years.

The organization revealed the results of the latest tests of this kind, conducted in 2018, which indicated that Chinese students are showing a superior performance exceeding the performance of all students from other countries in reading, math, and science.

Record numbers

79 countries and territories participated in the tests, a record. Last year, 600,000 students participated.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is composed of 37 countries, mostly developed countries, such as the United States, Japan, and EU member states.

But the number of countries wanting to see how their students are meeting international standards in education is increasing.

The tests, which rank countries according to the average score of students in each country, have become a measurement tool that influences international education standards, providing a different perspective compared to local tests.

Students present real challenges during these tests, which may be in the form of questions that address sound financial decision-making and optimization of information.

For example, there was a question in the 2018 tests that measures reading skills, based on an imaginary dialogue on an Internet forum, in which a poultry farm owner wonders if his chicken is aspirin safe.

Asian domination

China was the top-ranked in three of the last four rounds of these international tests, but there was a reservation that China's participation was limited to certain areas of the country.

Chinese authorities only used test results for Shanghai area students in 2009 and 2012. China also used the test results entered by students in only four states in 2015 and 2018.

"In these areas, the most disadvantaged students have shown better reading performance compared to ordinary students in OECD regions," said Andrea Schleicher, director of education at the OECD.

Finland was the top performer in the first three rounds of the International Student Assessment Program in 2000, 2003, and 2006, while Singapore took the lead in 2015.

Asian countries are the first in the program, according to the calculation of all scores. The current rankings indicate that Asian countries occupy the first four places in the results of those tests, while Estonia is the only non-Asian country to climb to advanced positions.

The OECD findings highlighted concerns about "readiness for the digital world".

According to Schlicher, the results of recent International Student Assessment Program tests showed that only 10 percent of students taking the tests from OECD countries were able to distinguish between personal facts and opinions while reading unfamiliar subjects.

However, the results indicated that the educational gap between developed and developing countries is not as large as some belief.

“When we compared countries that scored the same on the International Student Assessment Program, we found that there was a wide gap in income levels in those countries,” said the director of education.

The results also revealed significant differences between the performance of women and men. It proved that girls outperform boys in reading, and show marginal progress in science (by two points on average), while boys proved to outperform girls in math tests (by about five points). ).