The latest international student assessment from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has placed Georgia in the bottom eight of 79 countries, ranking alongside Kazakhstan and Panama.
The result is found in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Released on Tuesday, the ranking presents results of tests on about 600,000 students aged 15 in 79 states across the world.
Published every three years, the report follows a series of tests that students sit in volunteering countries or regions to identify their knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science. The test aims to identify what knowledge the students have as well as how they can use it for comprehension or finding solutions to scientific challenges.
The national average score for Georgian students in reading was identified at 380, placing the country between Kazakhstan (387) and Panama (377), with the top-ranked Chinese provinces of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang at 555.
Student performance in #reading, #math and #science in 79 countries & economies ⬇ t.co/yxx9nzP35R #OECDPISA 2018 #SDG4 pic.twitter.com/1T5jUEXzXV
— OECD Education (@OECDEduSkills) December 3, 2019
Ranking in mathematics saw Georgia at 398 points compared to China’s four regions at 591 and bottom-ranked Philippines at 353. In science, the national score was 383, in contrast to the OECD average of 489.
The scores show a decrease for Georgian students since the previous PISA report in 2015, where the country score was 411, 401 and 404 in the three categories respectively.
An OECD summary for the PISA findings said results for students around the world were concerning, with one in four young people in OECD states unable to accomplish “most basic reading tasks” and little improvement seen for countries over the past decade despite an increase in spending on school education.
The report also highlights a “stark” gap between performance of students from privileged and disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, with reading results of the richest 10 percent about three years ahead of the bottom 10 percent.
On the whole the report found young people “struggling in digital world” in terms of their education, with a more detailed look at the results is available in the Insights and Interpretations release for the report.
PISA is seen as a “powerful tool that countries and economies can use to fine-tune their education policies” (OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría) and has been run since 2000. About three million students have been involved in tests in over 90 countries since.
