Shanghai students rated best in world
Students in Shanghai have been ranked best in the world in the leading global study of secondary school performance - ousting their Hong Kong counterparts as the top performing Chinese-speaking region.
Shanghai's 15-year-olds swept the board in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), which was published yesterday, taking the top scores in reading, maths and science among 65 countries and regions.
But Hong Kong students held their position as third in the world in maths; they were ranked third in science and fourth in reading - down from second and third place, respectively.
Shanghai and Singapore were among eight new countries and 'partner countries and economies' to take part in the 2009 study conducted by rich countries' club the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with Singapore coming fifth in reading, second in maths, and fourth in science.
The OECD hailed the outstanding results of the Chinese-speaking economies as a 'wake-up call' for its 34 members - particularly western European nations and the United States.
South Korea and Finland were the two highest-scoring OECD countries in the 2009 Pisa study, ranked respectively second and third in reading, fourth and sixth in maths, and sixth and second in science.
'The Chinese-speaking regions are doing well because they have consistently scrutinised their education systems and are constantly seeking to improve,' Richard Hopper, senior education analyst with the OECD, said. 'They focus on teacher quality and ensuring that lower-performing schools improve.'
Hopper said a separate OECD study of education in Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong, also released yesterday, had found that all made sustained efforts to help low-achieving schools improve - and set high standards across the board.
'There are minor changes in Hong Kong's performance between 2006 and 2009 but they are not statistically significant,' he said. 'Over time, Hong Kong has showed itself to be a consistently high performer.
'This is a wake-up call for the OECD countries. The performance of these regions shows that consistent attention to education policies and the performance of schools pays off. OECD countries would do well to follow that approach.'
Pisa 2009 surveyed 470,000 15-year-old students in 65 countries. In addition to the OECD's 34 member states, it includes 31 'partner' countries or economies, with eight new countries and regions taking part for the first time last year.
'It is no surprise that Shanghai leads the pack - it is the leading light in China's education system,' Gerard Postiglioni, head of the division of policy, administration and social sciences at the University of Hong Kong and an expert on mainland education, said. 'And clearly the chopsticks societies - the ones with a Confucian heritage - are at the top of the league table and the reason is the value placed on education and the stress on basic education in these countries.'
Hong Kong joined the ranking in 2000, when the three-yearly study, which began as a comparison between OECD member countries, was opened up to other nations. Its students were ranked first in the world for maths.
An Education Bureau spokesman said the 'outstanding performance' of Hong Kong students in the 2009 Pisa study validated the direction of the territory's education reforms.
The reduction in differences in student performance between schools suggested that Hong Kong's education system was heading towards greater equality as well as higher quality.
