The PISA Wake-up Call?

Education-Key to Your Future

Imagine. 

In the last triennial PISA International Student Education Assessment conducted globally by OECD in 2013, only one out of a hundred 15-year old student from Malaysia was able to solve the given creative problem-solving questions posed. This compares dismally with five in Singapore, Korea and Japan.

Creative Problem-solving

Industrious Asian countries like Korea, Japan, Macau-China, Hong Kong-China, Shanghai-China and Chinese Taipei, along with Singapore, as usual, make up the top seven of the list.

Malaysia ranked close to the bottom of the study at 39th out of 44 countries. This meant that Malaysia took the last 6 position in this study. Her mean score was only 422.

Singapore, meanwhile,came up tops with a score of 562.

The overall mean score for all countries was 500.

Where Malaysia Stands

Let us look at some of the details.

Malaysian students scored below average or ranked 52 out of the 65 countries in mathematics, science and reading.

Malaysia also registered more than half of the share of low achievers, which means the students lacked the skills needed in a modern workplace.

Malaysia's share was sadly below the average percentage of 11.4%.

In the top performance category, Malaysia only had 0.9% share (not even one percent) of top performers as compared with Singapore's 29.3%.

Conversely, Singapore only had 8% share of low achievers. The mean share was 21.4%.

An interesting observation is Vietnam. She fared much better than Malaysia although 45% of its 15-year-olds did not even have the opportunity to go to school. 

Vietnamese students ranked 17 out of 65.

It was perceived that countries which performed well in the PISA invested in education as a vehicle for a better future and ensured accountability in educational standards.This investment in education is oftentimes, accompanied by high aspirations as a nation to build on human capital for the country's betterment and economic growth.

For competitive nations, the government and society have a big responsibility in education. Schools are not seen as a means for a select few to go on to a government career. Instead, it is regarded as an avenue where every student can learn to make the best of their own potential and talent.