An international education survey has termed Singapore teens as the brightest students in the world when rated on the basis of reading, science and mathematics.
In all these three subjects, Singapore students were able to beat Sweden, the US and France by demonstrating knowledge and skills that matches almost two additional years to their level of study.
The United States was at position 25 on the list – an improvement compared to its 2012 performance.
The 2015 Program International Student Assessment (PISA) took in about 500,000 15-year-old students from 72 countries of diverse economies. The participants did a two-hour exam, with the main focus being on science as opposed to maths in 2012.
East Asia the brightest students in the world
Overall, East Asia depicted a recorded the best performance, taking a lead when it comes to science. The non-Asian countries that ranked are Canada, Finland and Estonia.
Singapore, long considered an educational powerhouse, ranked first in science, math and reading. China slipped to 10th place after coming top in 2009 and 2012.
Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s director of education, said that “The fact that students in most East Asian countries consistently believe that achievement is mainly a product of hard work, rather than inherited intelligence, suggests that education and its social context can make a difference in instilling values that foster success in education.”
“While East Asian students score higher in science, they need to develop more positive attitudes towards science,” Schleicher said.
US, UK taking a middle position’
The United Kingdom students performed better compared to the United States. They ranked 15th, compared to the US which ranked 25th.
Both the US and the UK recorded an improvement compared to the 2012 results in which they had ranked 36th and 26th respectively.
The following is the students science mean score per country – (the list ordered alphabetically)
Australia | 511 |
---|---|
Austria | 504 |
Belgium | 508 |
Brazil | 403 |
Canada | 528 |
Chile | 454 |
Chinese Taipei | 535 |
Colombia | 421 |
Czech Republic | 497 |
Denmark | 505 |
Estonia | 536 |
Finland | 521 |
France | 496 |
Germany | 514 |
Greece | 451 |
Hong Kong, China | 523 |
Hungary | 478 |
Iceland | 472 |
Indonesia | 401 |
Ireland | 508 |
Israel | 469 |
Italy | 489 |
Japan | 545 |
Korea | 511 |
Latvia | 485 |
Luxembourg | 487 |
Macau, China | 525 |
Mexico | 420 |
Netherlands | 511 |
New Zealand | 516 |
Norway | 500 |
OECD – Average | 495 |
Peru | 402 |
Poland | 504 |
Portugal | 506 |
Russia | 489 |
Singapore | 559 |
Slovak Republic | 460 |
Slovenia | 510 |
Spain | 496 |
Sweden | 491 |
Switzerland | 508 |
Turkey | 422 |
United Kingdom | 510 |
United States | 500 |