A quarter of 15-year-olds in OECD countries may not be able to interpret simple texts

One in four 15-year-olds in OECD countries perform poorly in maths, reading and science, according to an international study which warns.

Some 690,000 students from 81 countries and economies took the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests in maths, reading and science, and the results indicate an “unprecedented” decline in student ability in OECD countries.

In Portugal, nearly seven thousand students from 224 schools took part in the 2018 PISA tests and also performed worse in maths and reading than their counterparts who took the 2018 PISA tests, the OECD said in a report released on Tuesday.

The study said one in four students in OECD countries performed poorly, meaning “they may have difficulty performing tasks such as using basic algorithms or interpreting simple texts.”

This trend is most pronounced in the 18 countries and economies where “more than 60% of 15-year-olds are behind.” Portugal does not appear on this list, despite the fact that its results, especially in mathematics, have declined.

Overall, “the decline in math performance is three times greater than any previous sequential change,” emphasizes Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Matthias Cormann.

The international tests were taken while countries were still reeling from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and so the researchers highlight that the results may reflect the impact on learning in confinement or distance learning, which has been carried out every three years since 2000.

However, the researchers believe the decline in scores “can only be partially explained by the pandemic,” keeping in mind that reading and science scores were already worsening in some countries before the pandemic.

Also in mathematics, symptoms of deteriorating performance were observed even before 2018, as was the case in Belgium, Canada, Finland or France.

The researchers understand that a direct link cannot be made between pandemic-related school closures and declines in student achievement, given the results currently known.

About half of students in OECD countries have been in lockdown for more than three months, but PISA results showed no clear difference in performance trends between education systems where schools were closed for less time, such as Iceland or Sweden, and countries where lockdowns were imposed. longer, as happened in Brazil, Ireland or Jamaica.

Despite challenging circumstances, 31 countries and economies managed to at least maintain their math scores after PISA 2018.

This was the case in Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Switzerland, which maintained or further improved their already high levels of student achievement with scores ranging from 487 to 575 (versus the OECD average of 472).

The researchers concluded that these education systems had shorter school closures in common, as well as fewer obstacles to distance learning and continued support from teachers and parents.

In Portugal, students scored 472 in maths, down 20.6 points from tests taken in 2018, one of 19 countries that dropped by more than 20 points.

Three out of every ten Portuguese students were unable to demonstrate that they had minimal proficiency in mathematics, meaning they had not achieved level two on the six-digit scale.

In Reading, students from Portuguese schools scored 477 points, a drop of 15.2 points compared to 2018, but 77% achieved at least level two, remaining above the OECD average of 74%.

In the natural sciences, Portugal emerges as a success story in bucking the downward trend, with a score of 484 in 2022, down 7.3 points from 2018.