Numbers Matter - PISA Results, Education Index and the Significance of Education Export

PISA Results

On global comparisons, in 2009, OECD's the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked the Australian education system as 6th for reading, 7th for science and 9th for mathematics.

In 2012, Australia performed 8th in science (down from 7th in 2009), 17th in maths (down from 9th) and 10th in reading (down from 6th). In the front-page story in The Australian on the 24th January 2012 the headline read: We risk losing education race, the Prime Minister at the time, Julia Gillard warns.

“Four of the top five performing school systems in the world are in our region and they are getting better and better … On average, kids at 15 in those nations are six months ahead of Australian kids at 15 and they are a year in front of the OECD mean … If we are talking about today’s children – tomorrow’s workers – I want them to be workers in a high-skill, high-wage economy where we are still leading the world. I don’t want them to be workers in an economy where we are kind of the runt of the litter in our region.”

In 2015, Australia performed equal 10th in science (down from 8th in 2012), 20th in maths (down from 17th) and 12th in reading (down from 10th).

There is a steady decline in the results since 2009. See the chart below.

PISA results 2006-2015

Science, maths and reading skills of 15 year olds

Education Index

The Education Index, published with the UN's Human Development Index in 2018, based on data from 2017, listed Australia as 0.929, the second-highest in the world. Previously the index was No. 1 in the world in 2015 and 2007.

Significance of Education Export

Education export is Australia’s third-biggest earner (more than AUS$32.2 billion) after iron ore and coal and potentially it’s the biggest if the resources boom goes bust.

Australia’s international education exports grew by 22% in 2017.

Of the 80,000 international students welcomed each year from all over the world – the third highest intake after the UK and USA – 12,000 come for secondary school education. More and more international students choose coming to study in Australian secondary and even primary schools in addition to universities.

Is it easier for you to accept the education index and the size of the education export than the PISA results? Are PISA data not important? No, PISA provides important data for policy makers on the quality and equity of schooling systems. We know Australian students are ranked high in problem solving skills. Australia has been a luck country. However our education system needs to adapt to a fast changing world.

Edited by user Sunday, 24 November 2019 9:10:55 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified