About PISA
The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date.
Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning outcomes attained around the world, and allow educators and policy makers to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries.
PISA assesses the cumulative outcomes of education and learning at a point at which most children are still enrolled in formal education: the age of 15.
What is next?
The three volumes of PISA 2018 results, that have been
published in December 2019 and summarised in my last 3 posts, provide the first findings from this latest PISA assessment. In 2020, OECD will published the last volume , which will highlight some of the policies and practices that predict the success of students, schools and education system.
The PISA 2018 results offer a snapshot of education systems at a certain moment in time; but they do not – they cannot – show how the school systems got to that point, or the institutions and organisations that might have helped or hindered progress. That is where the OECD brings a range of other tools to strengthen insights for policy and practice.
The demands on education and education policy are high and rising. In the past it was sufficient for education to sort students because our economies and societies could rely on a few highly educated individuals. In today’s world, everyone needs to have advanced knowledge and skills, not just for economic reasons but also for social participation. The best-performing PISA countries show that high-quality and equitable education is an attainable goal, that it is within countries’ means to deliver a future for millions
of learners who currently do not have one.
My personal comments on tertiary education
While education policy makers and also practitioners will do their best to fine-tune the education systems and policies based on PISA results, I think that the Business world also has a very significant role to play in tomorrow’s education of new generations, especially in tertiary education.
In the past and it is still the case today, education was and is still being delivered to students in the first part of their life (let’s say from 3 to 25 years-old) before they join the workforce. While working from 25 to 65 years-old or even beyond, adults will receive minimal education, except for the bare minimum of operational training. Very few adults will go back to university benches to upgrade their skills and knowledge on the latest technologies that were unknown 10 years before. Virtually no one will do it on a regular basis (let’s say every 5 years) during their professional career. The barriers between Education and Work should be totally abolished as the pace and the disruption of innovation and technology mandates a much more flexible approach of life-long learning, integration of subjects and integration of learning situations.
The future of life-long education will probably include a combination of yearly internships with solid tutorage, apprenticeship for most tertiary degrees, quinquennial learning programs of 4-6 weeks for every professional, teaching or experience-sharing with students & learners and a much wider use of MOOC and on-line curriculas.
What is your view on this topic? Does your company employs many interns or apprentices? How often do you earn an on-line certificate from a MOOC course?
Feel free to comment…
Source: OECD, PISA 2018 Database, Tables I.B1.10, I.B1.11, I.B1.12, I.B1.26 and I.B1.27.
OECD PISA 2018 – How is South-East Asia / ASEAN faring?
Part 1 – Reading
Part 2 – Mathematics
Part 3 – Science
Final – What is next?
References
OECD PISA reports: click here
OECD PISA 2018 Volume I – What Students know and can do: click here
OECD (2019), PISA 2018 Results (Volume I): What Students Know and Can Do, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5f07c754-en.
Some press articles after the publication of PISA 2018 results
1. China: click here
2. Singapore: click here
3. Malaysia: click here
4. Indonesia: click here
5. Thailand: click here
6. Philippines: click here
7. Brunei: click here
8. Vietnam: click here
Bruno Gillot 