Turkey shows progress in education: OECD survey

PARIS

Turkish students raised their skills in math, reading and science, according to the latest PISA poll released by the OECD. DHA photo

The Turkish education system has made remarkable progress over the past nine years, OECD’s latest PISA survey has revealed.

The country managed to improve the performance of its weakest students, many of whom come from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, according to the OECD's latest PISA poll, which tested over 500,000 students in 65 countries and economies on math, reading and science.

In the three-yearly report released by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) yesterday, it emerged that Turkish students had raised their skill levels by an average of 4 points in three fields. Despite remaining one of the worst-performers among 65 OECD countries, Turkey progressed to 3.2 points in math, 4.1 points in reading and 6.4 points in science.

Asian countries outperform the rest of the world in the survey, which saw Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea take the top five top places for math skills.

Shanghai’s top rankings means its students are the equivalent of three years of schooling ahead of their counterparts with average scores, including those of many wealthy Western countries like Britain and France. Only one European country, Finland, made it to the top five in any category, scoring as the fifth top performer in science.

The report noted that gender differences remain strong overall, with girls continuing to outperform in reading skills and boys showing better results in math.