Vietnamese students have performed well in the latest Programme forInternational Student Assessment (PISA) survey conducted by theOrganisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) announced on December 4that Vietnam was ranked eighth in science with 528 points, 17 th inmathematics with 511 points and 19 th in reading with 508 points among65 countries and territories participating in the survey in 2012. It isthe first time Vietnam, which has the lowest per capital incomeamong participating economies, has joined in the survey.

Among five participating Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam was inthe second place, after Singapore. The other threes are Thailand,Malaysia and Indonesia.
 
Vietnamese students outperformed their peers from many developed nations such as the UK , France and the US.
 
China dominated the PISA exam, taking the top slot in allthree subjects. Hong Kong, Taipei, Macau, the Republic ofKorea, Japan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and theNetherlands were also in the group of top performing economies.

The test, administered every three years by the OECD, is designed tomeasure whether student can apply what they’ve learned in school toreal-life problems. Approximately 510,000 15-year-olds in public andprivate schools took the paper-and-pencil exam in the fall of 2012.

According to MOET Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien, the PISAhas helped Vietnam in evaluating learners’ capacity and analysingfactors affecting it, thus improving education quality in acomprehensive manner.

The country will look into the resultsin order to seek measures for education quality improvement, firstlyelementary and secondary education, and study how to apply PISAtechniques and methods in education quality assessment to Vietnam, thedeputy minister said.-VNA