Each year, the OECD tests half a million 15-year old students in 70 countries in reading, mathematics and science. The results for 2009 were published this month.

They showed students in Korea and Finland had the highest scores for reading literacy. Both countries did well in mathematics and science tests also.

New Zealand was 6th in reading, behind Korea, Finland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada. Japan was next. In science, New Zealand was 7th and in mathematics 11th out of 70 countries. While most of our students did very well in all tests, we have a large tail. These are students who have problems at school and do not achieve good results. Maori and Pacific Islanders often do not do well in tests.

The OECD report also showed that girls in these 70 countries read better than boys. They are about one year ahead of boys. Reading for pleasure has dropped from 69% in 2000 to 64% in 2009.

Countries which had a more equal society achieved better results whereas countries with a wide gap between rich and poor usually did not do so well.

Countries which chose to pay their teachers well instead of making classes smaller, had better results in the tests.

You can read the full report here.

Questions

1. Why do students from more equal societies do better in these tests?

2. Why do girls read better than boys?

3. Is reading for pleasure important?

4. Some of the countries which had the best results are Finland, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. Can you suggest any reasons why their students produced such good results?