Estonia performs exceptionally well in OECD’s biggest ever global school rankings

The report, Universal Basic Skills: What Countries Stand To Gain, is based on test scores of 76 countries, offering a wider global map of education quality than OECD’s Pisa tests.

“The idea is to give more countries, rich and poor, access to comparing themselves against the world’s education leaders, to discover their relative strengths and weaknesses, and to see what the long-term economic gains from improved quality in schooling could be for them,” OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, said.

Estonia achieved an average score of 531 in the tests, compared for example to 504 in the UK and 489.4 in the US. The UK is placed 20th, the US 28th, and Sweden has dropped to 35th, one step behind Russia (34th). Latvia and Lithuania are ranked 24th and 31st respectively, ERR News reported.

Estonia also has the second smallest percentage of students who fail to acquire basic skills, behind Hong Kong.

Estonian pupils achieved a higher average in science (541.4) than in maths (520.5).

Rankings based on basic maths and science skills at age 15:

1. Singapore
2. Hong Kong
3. South Korea
4. Japan
5. Taiwan
6. Finland
7. Estonia
8. Switzerland
9. Netherlands
10. Canada