"Pisa tests: UK stagnates as Shanghai tops league table"
According to the BBC, "The UK is falling behind global rivals in international tests taken by 15-year-olds, failing to make the top 20 in maths, reading and science." The results do indeed make for grim reading, but things are perhaps not quite as dire as they seem. Firstly, since few of us know how to read nowadays we are likely to be spared the worst effects of the latest figures. Secondly, the choice of 15-year-olds for this test is surely rather arbitrary, and I have a feeling that the results would be very different if the tests had been given to, say, 18-year-olds.
As far as the UK itself is concerned, there were few surprises. The Scots did better than the English, which was only to be expected given that most of them work at the BBC, and the Welsh of course fared worst.
In other good news, it was gratifying to see Finland and Sweden starting to slide down the list. Many of us had long been waiting for these perpetual goody-goodies to get their comeuppance.
Scratching head here but I'm not entirely sure what tests 15 year olds take in the UK so how was this harsh, though likely to be true, judgement reached?
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of most Scots working for the BBC - again probably true.
Are you implying that the ratings were fixed? Like the Eurovision Song Contest? Surely not.
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