Wednesday, Dec 07, 2016

Dubai: The latest worldwide look at student performance shows Dubai’s private schools at around average levels of competence in science and reading.

The latest results show an improvement over the previous study, released three years ago.

Scores for 72 countries were released this week by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Backed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) PISA is a worldwide exam that measures 15-year-old students worldwide.

About 540,000 students took PISA’s exam in 2015, the year of the latest study.

The results from Dubai show students improving six points in science, four points above the global average.

In reading, they improved by eight points in reading, ranking them at the global average.

Meanwhile, students in the United States and Britain saw a stagnant performance in science and reading, while in Australia, scores dropped.

Students in Singapore were ranked the best in the world.

“We have started seeing a positive shift which has enabled our students to get equipped with improved skills,” said Abdullah Al Karam, director-general of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).

The KHDA inspects schools across the emirate of Dubai, and serves as an education regulator.

On average, Emirati students enrolled in UK curriculum schools in Dubai performed the best, scoring above their Emirati peers in other schools, according to the KHDA.

In the reading category, only Indian and UK curricula observed an improvement in average reading scores from 2012 to 2015.

In 2015, 6,798 students were sampled, which represents a 36.7 per cent increase from 2012. This is the third time Dubai has participated in PISA.

Staff Report

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