Chan Chun Sing congratulates SG students for topping latest global education rankings

SINGAPORE: Students in Singapore re-took first place in the latest survey of global education rankings, which Education Minister Chan Chun Sing celebrated in an Instagram post on Wednesday (Dec 6).

The achievement of Singapore students is, therefore, all the more noteworthy. “Singaporean students can work effectively with mathematical models for complex situations, comprehend abstract texts, and interpret and evaluate complex experiments. Singapore came top in maths, scoring 575 points, in reading (543 points) and in science (561 points). These results suggest that on average Singaporean students are the equivalent of almost three to five years of schooling ahead of peers who score the OECD average of 472 in maths, 476 in reading, and 485 in science,” the study’s report says.

Mr Chan wrote that he was “proud to see that our Singapore students have continued to perform well” in the latest PISA survey.

 

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“Team Singapore emerged as the top-performing country in PISA 2022, with our students improving substantially in their Science scores. We were also one of three countries with an improvement in Science over the pandemic years,” he noted.

The Education Minister also lauded the students for performing well in the face of the pandemic, and thanked teachers for their work, especially since they had to adapt to new ways when learning went online.

“Excellence is not a destination, but a continuous journey that never ends. We will not rest on our laurels, and continue to work closely with schools, parents, and partners to support our students in their education journey. Let us always strive to surpass ourselves, rather than focusing on outperforming others,” wrote Mr Chan.

Singapore fell second to China in 2018 after coming first in 2015. In the latest survey, however, Chinese students were not included because schools in China were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic when the survey was taken.

This year’s rankings from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey of 15-year-old students in 37 OECD member countries plus 44 other partner nations were published on Dec 6. They showed an “unprecedented” decline in global literacy scores, primarily due to disruptions brought about by the Covid pandemic. Singapore students improved their scores in science and maintained them in math. Reading scores, however, took a slight dip.

Globally, only science scores stayed pretty much at the same level. Math scores dropped by 15 points since the survey was last taken in 2018, equivalent to three-quarters of a year of learning, and reading scores decreased by half a year.

Read also: PISA 2018 results put Singapore students in second place after China /TISG