Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was first set up in the year 2000 and is a standardised test put in place every three years worldwide in order to evaluate education systems. PISA compares the results of students from different countries to see which ones are scoring high in reading, mathematics and science. 15 year old students from partaking schools are chosen at random and are assessed. PISA is held in countries that are members of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The assessment is carried out in three year cycles and the most recent test was performed in 2012. The results of the assessment should then be used to improve teaching strategies ready for the next test. National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) manages the PISA tests within the United Kingdom.
Wales carried out the assessment for the first time in 2006 with the test mainly focussing on science. Wales scored significantly less than what they were hoping to and had plans to change that by 2009. Unfortunately this was not the case and scored even less in all three areas or reading, mathematics and science than they did in 2006. 5 points were dropped in reading, 9 points in science and a staggering 12 points in maths. Wales also scored below the OECD average in reading and mathematics in 2009. Education Minister, Leighton Andrews (2010) described the PISA tests as a “wake-up call to a complacent system” and aims to have Wales score within the top 20 schools by 2015.
In 2009, Shanghai-China, Korea and Finland scored the highest in the performance table whereas Peru, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan scored the lowest. Finland has scored within the top 3 schools each time but yet Finnish schools allocate less homework and engage the children in more creative play. It was also noticed that there are no private schools in Finland; therefore there is no ‘extra’ teaching time to be shared amongst students. Wales ranked 38th for reading, 40th for mathematics and 30th for science out of 67 countries.
So far, Leighton Andrews has put in place a statutory requirement on all qualifying teachers to be trained in literacy and numeracy and has also asked officials for initial teacher training to become a two year master course. There are many difficulties that need to be tackled in order to raise the results in the PISA tests in Wales and achieve results in the top 20 schools by 2015.
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