For the first time, Spain has managed to equal the average result of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states in the annual PISA global education survey.
The latest report to be published, based on 2015 data, shows that on a scale where 500 points is an average mark, Spain achieved a score of 493 for sciences (down 3 points on the 2012 result) and 486 for mathematics (up 2 points). For reading comprehension, the country scored 496 points (up 8 points).
A total of 37,000 15-year-old students at 980 Spanish educational centers took part in the study and results show a significant north-south divide, with Castilla y León scoring 519 points for sciences while Andalusia scored 473 points.
At the national level, the latest PISA exam, which this time had a strong science focus, showed that Spain is in the same bracket as countries such as the US, France, Russia, Norway and Sweden. However, it is long way behind nations like Singapore, which topped the table with 556 points.
Estonia and Finland were the highest-ranked European nations, in third and fifth place respectively.
Spain’s Education Minister Íñigo Méndez de Vigo welcomed the results, calling them “very satisfactory.” He said Spain had “bucked the educational trend and now ranked, for the first time in its history, alongside the most advanced countries in the world.”
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com