Macau pupils’ mathematical literacy ranked third globally with a score of 544 in the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) announced on Tuesday during a press conference at the bureau.
Singapore and Hong Kong ranked first and second respectively. Taiwan and the mainland ranked fourth and sixth respectively.
DSEJ Director Leong Lai, University of Macau (UM) Faculty of Education (FED) Professor Cheung Kwok Cheung, who headed the local PISA project, and Wong I Lin, the bureau’s school inspector, jointly presided over the press conference to announce the results obtained by local pupils who participated in the 2015 PISA study.
The PISA report, which was released by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday, is the single largest study of global schooling and has been dubbed the World Cup of Education.
Addressing the press conference, Leong said Macau ranked sixth worldwide in scientific literacy with a score of 529 and twelfth in reading literacy with a score of 509.
Cheung said PISA aimed at examining the effectiveness of the education system by assessing participating 15-year-old pupils on three kinds of literacy, namely scientific, reading and mathematical.
A total of 4,476 pupils, the majority of them studying in Form 3 and 4, were tested by the University of Macau last year in PISA 2015, according to Cheung.
It was the fifth time Macau participated in the triennial programme. The first time was in 2003. A total of 72 countries and territories took part in the latest PISA.
Cheung said PISA 2015 showed that Macau pupils’ performance in mathematical literacy last year was the best of all previous PISA tests, adding that the overall performance has improved.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
