Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Report: L. America ranked low in education

A study on the education of 15-year-olds by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranked several Latin American countries as “below average.” The 2006 PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) surveyed 15-year-old students in 57 countries with a special emphasis on science. Students from Finland, Hong Kong and Canada topped the list of most proficient in science and Asia-Pacific states were among the best across the board.

Overall, the OECD noted that despite improvements and increased spending on education, some countries’ results were not too good:

Mexico and Greece saw significant improvements in mathematics performance between 2003 and 2006. However, across the OECD area as a whole learning outcomes have generally remained flat, while expenditure on education in OECD countries rose by an average of 39% between 1995 and 2004.

The PISA report also ranked students from Spain, Italy, and the U.S. as performing under average.

Sources- BBC News, Canadian Press, FT.com, OECD, Reuters UK, YLE News

Image- BBC News


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