In December of last year, the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) announced its yearly data.
PISA assesses the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in mathematics, reading and science from all over the world and gives insights into how well education systems are preparing students for real-life challenges and future success for the purposes of advising governments on educational investment decisions.
While the rest of the globe shuttered after COVID-19 and saw some dramatic declines, Australia and the USA faired quite well. Whilst we didn’t show an upswing, we bucked the declines of other nations and therefore increased ranking by comparison. Australia moved up 13 places from the last round of data in 2018.
Singapore led the global league tables in the mathematics assessment, followed by Macao (China), Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong (China)*, Japan, and Korea.[i] China topped the charts for science, and reading, with Singapore, Estonia, Canada, Japan and Finland all in the mix, too.[ii]
Another trend evident, perhaps due to the lack of preparation and online school capabilities, showed that globally schools catering for migrant students showed increased student anxiety and reduced psychosocial well-being, as well as the effects of income inequality on score results[iii]
However, despite Australia’s increased migrant population (PISA data showing those born overseas in the 15-year-old population increasing to 29% from 23% in 2018), our numbers held steady academically. Some 41% of immigrant students (and 2% of all remaining students) reported that the language they speak at home most of the time is different from the language in which they took the PISA assessment. With overall scores holding steady, this is good news for international education as it shows that we are holding our own in terms of support for ESL students.
Focussing on Australia:
- our boys and girls are performing similarly in mathematics, but girls are outperforming boys in reading skills.
- Independent schools performed better across all three areas than other institutions, followed by the Catholic sector and then government schools.[iv] This falls in line with the increased demand for independent education in Australia and from the international student cohort.
- The ACT was top of the class in every category, while nationally students in city schools outperformed their peers in regional and remote areas.[v]
- Not surprisingly, Australia still has work to do to support our remote and indigenous communities. Results were similar among First Nations students, with less than 30% of First nations students reached the national proficient standard across all categories. . In mathematics, 57% of First Nations students were low performers.[vi]
Overall, we have some work to do to even out the gender and socio-economic gaps. There is also much work to be done for our Indigenous population. The good news for international education is that we’re providing multicultural support, made it through COVID with limited impacts, and independent schools are getting remarkable results. Australia is left standing to celebrate at the finish line.
[i]OECD, PISA Results 2022. https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-results/
[ii] Hallahan, G. 1/12/2023 https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/general/pisa-tests-and-rankings-explained#:~:text=In%20the%20last%20Pisa%20data,all%20in%20the%20mix%2C%20too.
[iii] Hatch, T, 13/12/2023 https://internationalednews.com/2023/12/13/scores-plummet-around-the-world-scanning-the-headlines-on-the-release-of-the-2022-pisa-results/
[iv] Long, C. 5/12/2023. “Australia is now in the worlds’ top 10 academic performers – but the data paints a complex picture,” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-05/pisa-international-school-rankings-in-maths-science-reading/103185468
[v] Long, C. 5/12/2023. “Australia is now in the worlds’ top 10 academic performers – but the data paints a complex picture,” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-05/pisa-international-school-rankings-in-maths-science-reading/103185468
[vi] Cassidy C, 5/12/2023 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/05/australian-students-2022-pisa-scores-results-declining-oecd
