OEDC Report Reveals ‘Unprecedented’ Decline in Global Literacy Scores

* Singapore is world’s best, Maths scores in US ‘stubbornly low’

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

The latest global education survey published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revealed an “unprecedented” decline in academic progress in many countries across the world.

Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, the first study on state of global education since COVID-19 pandemic also focused on the mental state of students, showing the historic setbacks suffered by students globally.

The PISA survey is carried out every three years by the OECD, and tests 15-year-old students’ knowledge in mathematics, reading and science across 81 countries and regions.

The report revealed that the average international mathematics score fell by 15 points since the 2018 tests, the equivalent of three-quarters of a year of learning.

This showed that reading fell by the equivalent of half a year, with only science scores remaining more or less the same.

According to the assessment, 20 points is seen as equivalent to a year of learning.

Asian countries dominated the top spots in a keenly watched survey of education capabilities, while levels in Europe slipped at a record pace – and not just because of Covid. 

However, the report also showed that students in top performing countries were not necessarily happier.

The PISA survey is carried out every three years by the Paris-based OECD to assess the ability of 15-year-olds to meet real-life challenges. 

“The PISA 2022 results show a fall in student performance that is unprecedented in Pisa’s history,” OECD education analyst, Irene Hu said.

Singapore took top ranking in the latest assessment, which was carried out in 2022 and involved 690,000 students in 81 participating countries and economies. 

The South-east Asian island city state scored highest in all three of the survey’s areas: mathematics, reading and science.

“These results suggest that, on average, Singaporean students are the equivalent of almost three to five years of schooling ahead of their peers.

“Five other Asian education systems – in Macao, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea – came next in mathematics, and also scored near the top in reading and science.

But while Asia did well, other parts of the world declined, sparking an overall “unprecedented drop in performance,” the report said.

The usual survey schedule was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and the overall results from 2022 reflected the changes since the previous tests in 2018 across both rich and poor nations, eliciting concern from officials.

It was administered in 2022 to a sample of 15-year-olds in 37 OECD member countries plus 44 other partner nations.

 The OECD has been conducting the test since 2000.

In the United States, despite President Joe Biden’s investments in education, including $190 billion in pandemic relief that the US Congress sent to schools, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that the country’s maths scores remain “stubbornly low”.

“We cannot be complacent at home,” he said, “not when math is critical to our global competitiveness and leadership”.

European countries also showed a particularly sharp decline. Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland were among countries that saw notably lower achievements in maths, the report showed.

In other countries, “the average 15-year-old in 2022 scored at the level expected of a 14-year-old in 2018,” the report said.

Germany and France scored in the lower ranks among European countries, with German pupils performing worse than ever in reading, maths and science in what OECD education analyst Eric Charbonnier called a “worrying” decline.

Countries such as Germany, Iceland and the Netherlands saw drops of 25 points or more in maths scores.

While some of the decline is likely due to school shutdowns and interruptions during COVID-19, “long-term issues in education systems are also to blame for the drop in performance,” the report said.

“It is not just about Covid,” OECD analysts said, arguing that the issue is systemic.

A key factor is “the level of support pupils received from teachers and school staff”, according to Irene Hu.

Charbonnier agreed that “countries have invested in education over the past 10 years, but may be they didn’t invest efficiently, or sufficiently into the quality of teaching”.

Andreas Schleicher, OECD education and skills director, highlighted that there are lessons to be taken from the report.

“There are underlying structural factors and they are much more likely to be permanent features of our education systems that policymakers should really take seriously,” he said.