Singapore students did well in an international study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
A total of 65 countries took part in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2009.
Singapore students ranked second in Mathematics, fourth in Science, and fifth in Reading. Singapore also had the second highest proportion (12.3%) of students who are top performers in all three domains, second only to Shanghai (14.6%).
Singapore had the second highest proportion (39.3%) of deep and wide readers, after Shanghai.
The study also highlighted the importance of reading.
Students who enjoyed reading, read regularly, read a broad array of materials, and knew what to do to understand, remember and summarise complex information, scored highest in the PISA Reading assessment.
In more than two-thirds of participating countries, including Singapore, doing at least some daily reading for enjoyment improved reading performance. Across countries, students who read fiction tended to achieve higher performance, compared to other types of reading material.
In Singapore, students who read fiction and newspapers regularly had higher Reading scores than students who did not.
The details of the findings from each domain are below:
(i) Reading. In Reading, Singapore students performed better than those from native English-speaking countries like Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition, Singapore had the third highest proportion (15.7%) of top performers in Reading, after Shanghai and New Zealand. This proportion is twice that of the OECD average (7.6%). Our top performers in Reading could locate and organise several pieces of deeply embedded information and infer which information in the text is relevant. They could also critically evaluate texts.
(ii) Mathematics. The mean score of Singapore students in Mathematics was significantly higher than most other participants. Singapore also had the second highest proportion (35.6%) of top performers in Mathematics, after Shanghai. Our top performers could develop and work with mathematical models for complex situations and have well-developed thinking and reasoning skills. They could also communicate their interpretations and reasoning.
(iii) Science. Singapore had the second highest proportion (19.9%) of top performers in Science, after Shanghai. Our top performers in Science could identify the scientific components of many complex life situations and apply scientific concepts to these situations. They could use well-developed inquiry abilities and construct arguments based on their critical analysis.
On Singapore’s performance in PISA, Ms Ho Peng, MOE’s Director- General of Education, said, “We are pleased that our students are among the top performers. PISA is an assessment on students’ thinking and application of what they know. The outcomes affirm that we are in the right direction in education. It is a system pulling well together – clear directions, adequate resourcing, strong school leadership, high level of professionalism of teachers, good partnerships with parents. It is a system that is strong in the fundamentals. In this regard, reading is crucial, for a good headstart to learning in other areas. I would urge all parents to support us in this effort by nurturing the reading habit in their children.”
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