Danish students aged 15 are falling behind their Asian peers when it comes to maths and science, according to a new OECD report.
The report showed that the Danes were ranked 22nd. Finland was the best European country in sixth, while the top five all came from Asia, led by Singapore in first followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
“This is the first time we have had a truly global scale of the quality of education,” the OECD’s education director, Andreas Schleicher, told the BBC.
“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.”
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Swedish troubles
But at least the Danes can say they are ahead of the curve in Scandinavia with Norway (25), Iceland (33) and Sweden (35) trailing in their wake. The OECD went as far as warning that Sweden’s education system was in dire need of an overhaul.
The top 10 was rounded up by Estonia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Canada, while other notables included Germany (13), Australia (14), the UK (20), the US (28), Russia (34) and South Africa (75).
The OECD ranking is based on comparing PISA test scores and relating them to the nations’ education systems and economic growth.
