The report, by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and titled Universal Basic Skills: What Countries Stand to Gain,
focuses on math and science skills among students in 76 countries. It
then quantifies economic gains that countries can realize if they take
steps to boost enrollment and improve classroom teaching.
Students in
Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and
Taiwan tended to demonstrate the highest-level skills in math and
science, according to the report.
The only former Eastern Bloc countries to crack the top 20 were Estonia, Poland, and Slovenia.
The survey's
results appear to dash the widely held assumption about the former
communist countries of Europe that while they performed poorly in many
areas, at least students there were well educated in math and science.
Andreas
Schleicher, the OECD's director for education and skills, says based on
current metrics, he doubts if students in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union were ever that well educated in the modern sense of the word.
"The systems in
the Balkans and Eastern Europe, generally, emphasized content-learning
over the creative application of knowledge," he says. "Today, what's
important is not what you know but how you apply that knowledge."
Among European
countries, the survey finds that students in former Eastern Bloc states
like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, while often weaker than
in Western Europe, generally outperformed their peers in countries that
were once part of the Soviet Union. These include the Russian Federation
(34th), Ukraine (38th), Kazakhstan (49th), and Armenia (50th).
The weakest
skill set, among European countries, was found in the Balkans and former
Yugoslavia. The survey awards the lowest overall scores to students in
Macedonia (65th) and Montenegro (56th).
In terms of
what countries stand to gain if they reform, the report says the roles
are reversed. Countries that seriously commit to educational changes,
such as improving teaching, also stand to gain the most in terms of
wealth.
Schleicher says the quality of schooling is a powerful predictor of the overall wealth a country will produce in the long run.
He says,
though, this doesn't mean that simply spending more on education will
automatically result in higher growth. The most effective improvements,
he says, involve "finding and hiring better teachers" and "getting
students involved in active learning."
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