Just two Asian economies are included in the top 10 of a new global education rankings report published today, in stark contrast with the global Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) rankings, in which Asian countries dominated.
In the global education rankings - the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index, or WEFFI - just two Asian states appear in the top 10: Singapore, in fourth place, and Japan, in 10th.
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However, in the latest 2018 Pisa rankings - run by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who test 15-year-olds across 79 countries - Singapore and Chinese territory Macau ranked first and second place respectively across maths, science and reading.
East Asian countries also made up seven of the top 10 in Pisa for maths, and four of the top five in reading.
The WEFFI analyses how 50 developed and developing economies are helping young people aged 15-24 to develop “future skills” such as communication, entrepreneurship, creativity and critical thinking, whereas Pisa is based on three tests in maths, science and reading, which are only administered to 15-year-olds.
The report, published today, attributes Singapore’s successes - it climbed up the ranks three places from seventh to fourth since the previous year - to how it has integrated “future skills” in its curriculum framework for upper secondary education.
In contrast, a focus on exam preparation is seen as the cause for China’s relatively poor performance in these rankings.
Derrick Chang, chief executive of the private PSB Academy in Singapore, said in the report that while China, Japan and Singapore have tried to lessen their focus on exam scores in recent years, he thinks it will be years before genuine change is seen.
He said that this is the “biggest impediment to advancing future skills learning in Chinese secondary schools”, according to the report.
In Shanghai, the gaokao - the university entrance exam - contributes to the exam-focused nature of education, he said.
“Shanghai is making progress with its reforms, and its universities are starting to change their entrance criteria, but universities elsewhere in China are not, and Shanghai students apply to those, too,” Mr Chang said.
He said that in China, teachers fear that unless university admissions are based on the gaokao, “the influence of personal connections will grow”.
Such concerns can impede a focus on future skills, Mr Chang said.
“Students cannot become active learners as long as the public examination continues to dominate school life.”
Overall, China was 34th in the rankings for the WEFFI this year.
India was just behind with an overall position of 35th. The report suggests its position may be the result of its decentralised education system: “Well-intentioned policy goals relating to future skills development often do not get filtered downward, a hazard in economies such as the US and India that have large, decentralised education systems,” it said.
The report noted that developing economies were “punching above their weight”. When scores were adjusted for a country’s income, the top 10 included low and middle-income countries such as Ghana, the Philippines, Mexico, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The findings were put together by the Economist Group, commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation, set up by educational philanthropist Charles Chen Yidan.
