By Gavin Mackintosh
Teenagers in the Uk have improved in their reading levels according to a finding by the Pisa report published by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). England came tops among the four devolved education systems in the Uk.
Only yesterday(Monday), The Eye Of Media.Com’s research team were discussing with Ofsted, ways to improve the standard of reading in Uk primary schools and some mainstream secondary schools. The improvement in reading in England is an overall summary of all the participating schools including outstanding and private schools. A need for improved levels of reading in many Uk primary and secondary schools remains high, especially up to the early and mid years of secondary school.
The points score rose in the last three years from 492 to 502, and from 498 to 504, respectively.However, China is said to have been the lead country in reading , with all four parts of China that participated in the study – Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang (BSJZ) – scoring the highest across all three subjects, China achieved a total of 591 for maths, 555 for reading, and 590 for science.
Estonia and Finland ranked fifth and sixth for reading, and fourth and sixth for science.The report said: “In this context, and given the fact that expenditure per primary and secondary student rose by more than 15% across OECD countries over the past decade, it is disappointing that most OECD countries saw virtually no improvement in the performance of their students since Pisa was first conducted in 2000.”
.Andreas Schleicher, OECD education and skills director, said: “In the UK things have been more or less stable, but we have seen a decline in science.
“The slide in science is not a recent phenomenon.
“It is hard to get good science teachers, there is a shortage and something a lot of countries are facing. There are positive signals – in reading and maths, there is momentum.
“Overall, I think we can talk about signals of progress in the UK. The perception is that things are going in the right direction.”
But he said it would take “a long time” for the UK to get close enough to break into the top-five for maths, reading and science.
He said: “I think the UK needs to think hard about how to invest resources – a better system might be more important than more money.”