Latest PISA Results: Australia Vs the World

The Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA was started in 2000. It is a survey conducted to assess the readiness of the students for life beyond their curriculum knowledge. In this survey, student data is collected in the context of their knowledge and skills. Every three years students are assessed in three different literacy fields namely math, reading and science. Australia is also one of those countries that participate in this survey. In this article, we would like to discuss how well Australia has performed in the Programme for International Student Assessment.

Australian achievement in PISA since 2000

Why is PISA Important for Australia?

• The subject experts of our assignment writing service believe that PISA is indeed a great initiative for the betterment of Australia’s education system. PISA provides a common framework to Australia against which it can monitor how well the Australian educational institutions are performing on a global level.
• PISA provides a lot of necessary information to Australia for developing new policies as well as can easily signify the areas of progress and decline in the education system. Hence, this survey holds a good importance for the overall improvement of the education quality in Australia.
• It gives a good opportunity for Australia to compare its students on a global scale and examine how well prepared they are for facing real-life scenarios and competition. From this survey, the educational institutions get an insight into where do they need to work upon on the students.
• Moreover, Australia gets a good chance to compare itself with its own performance in the past years. It is always important to compare your own progress from the past if you want to know where you are heading. With PISA results, Australia can easily measure the effects of every policy change on the education system and students.

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Some Key Findings of The PISA 2015 Assessment

Percentage of students achieving the national proficient standard

Australia was also one of the 72 countries that participated in PISA 2015. Almost 758 Australian schools and 14530 students of Australia took part in this survey. But, the PISA results for 2015 were not really good for Australia. The country had a steady decline in terms of international comparisons. According to the results, Australia performed 10th in science, 20th in math and 12th in reading. This score was significantly low than the scores of 2012 when Australia was 8th in science, 17th in math and 10th in reading. Let us now look at how Australia performed as compared to the average OCED scores.

• Mathematical Literacy
  Australia scored 494 points whereas the mean score of OCED was 490. Australia was notably under 19 countries. The diversity was also seen in the overall mathematical literacy in Australia as almost 61% of students who reached the National Proficient Standard were from the Australian Capital Territory. On the other hand, the percentage of such students was only 44% in Tasmania.
• Scientific Literacy
  The OECD average score of scientific literacy was 493 while Australia scored a total of 510 points notably well. Expect in Tasmania and the Northern Territory all other states performed very well. A total of 61% students in Australia reached the National Proficient Standard in the scientific literacy category. Also, 11% of the students were under the category of high performers and almost 18% were under the category of low performers. This means that only a handful of students are actually performing well.
• Reading Literacy
  Australia scored a total of 503 points whereas the OECD average was 493. All the states performed well but yet again Tasmania and the Northern Territory were the low performers.

We understand that life skills are equally important to curriculum knowledge. Our subject experts always aim at guiding students in both ways. With services like assignment help in Canberra, we aim at providing complete assistance to students in subjects that they find difficult to cope up with. The PISA results show that there is a significant learning gap among the students, especially in math. It has been estimated that the students of Australia are almost one and a half years behind as compared to Singapore which is currently leading the charts of PISA. Not only this, they are one year behind in science and one year behind in reading. This is quite a matter of concern for Australia.

Andreas Schleicher, the head of the OECD’s education directorate states that the countries that are performing well today have a completely different perspective towards education. They give much importance on uplifting the teachers as they are the ones who play a major role in the student’s progress in life. If teachers are supportive students can do everything.

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According to Mr Schleicher, teachers from other countries like Singapore not just deliver education but develop innovative teaching practices. He also added that the teachers in Australia have to deal with significant challenges which hinder their growth. Australia should rather provide more support and help in making the teaching process more intellectual and engaging.

PISA digs over some imperative questions that every country’s educational system should consider. It focuses on determining if the 15-year-old Australian students are prepared enough for life-long learning. It assesses if the schools are capable of producing students who can handle the adult-life. It gives an insight into whether the schools are actually doing something for the immigrant students and for those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The PISA 2018 assessment process is soon going to begin from the end of July 2018. Are you prepared for it?