2023-12-06 13:34:06
FRANCE – The OECD published its Pisa study on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, which measures the level of 15-year-old students in several countries around the world. According to the new edition of this ranking, the performance of students in the 81 countries concerned recorded an “unprecedented decline” in science, mathematics and reading comprehension. France, which as in 2018 is in the average of OECD countries, is no exception to the rule and falls particularly hard in mathematics. Its results are among the lowest ever measured since 2000. The publication of the Pisa study comes shortly before the announcements by the Minister of National Education, Gabriel Attal, aimed at reforming the French education system.
The Pisa ranking (Program for International Student Assessment), published every three years since 2000 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), is a reference study, eagerly awaited by governments. This new study is revealed a year late, due to the Covid pandemic.
The program monitors the performance of education systems in nearly 100 countries around the world, measuring their students’ skills in science, mathematics and reading comprehension. For 2022, 690,000 adolescents from 81 countries and territories were subjected to the exercises, including 8,000 French people in 335 establishments.
The level in France falling between 2018 and 2022
Once again, it is Asia which dominates the debates. Three countries and territories on the continent are leading the pack. Singapore has risen to the top of the ranking in recent years, ceded by the four Chinese provinces of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The city-state is closely followed by Japan, South Korea and Estonia. Switzerland completes the Top 5, ahead of Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, which appear in the Top 10. Asian domination is even more notable in mathematics, with Singapore prances in the lead, followed by Macau (Chinese territory), Taiwan and Hong Kong.
France is in 23rd place in the ranking. As in 2018, France remains within the average of the 36 OECD countries that took part in the tests. The level of French students in the three subjects is close to that of Spain, Germany, Hungary and Lithuania. But the “unprecedented drop” in the average level of students is even more marked among the French, whose results are, according to the OECD, “among the lowest ever measured”.
Paris totals as many points in mathematics (22nd) as well as in reading comprehension, that is to say 474 points, a score lower than the 487 points recorded in sciences (22nd). The total score is 474 points in 2022 compared to 495 in 2012 with, each time, this slight advance on the average recorded within the OECD (494 in 2012 and 472 points in 2022). “France’s average score is stable between 2012 and 2018 but drops by 21.5 points between 2018 and 2022,” points out the Ministry of Education, which emphasizes that “this considerable drop also concerns the vast majority of the 36 OECD countries” appearing in the ranking. Only nine countries managed to stabilize, such as Japan and South Korea, Turkey, Australia, Chile and Switzerland.
“No change in the OECD average during consecutive Pisa assessments until 2018 has ever exceeded 4 points in mathematics and 5 points in reading comprehension,” the organization emphasizes in its report. But in Pisa 2022, the OECD average fell by 15 points in mathematics and around 10 points in science compared to the 2018 results. The average science score, however, remained stable. The unprecedented declines in mathematics and reading highlight the shock wave of the Covid-19 pandemic which has affected most countries,” we read.
But this decline “is only partly attributable to the pandemic” since the trend had already been visible for around ten years. In this case, what is this decline due to? The OECD mentions the crisis in the attractiveness of the teaching profession, the lack of support for teachers and students and the involvement of parents, less strong than in 2018. Regarding France, the OECD specifies that it is “one of the countries in the organization where the link between the socio-economic status of students and the performance they obtain in Pisa is the strongest”.
Attal announces its measures to redress the situation
The results of this study confirm those which have already warned of the decline in the level of French students in mathematics, such as the report “The State of the School” from the Ministry of Education. He mentioned “a very significant decline over thirty years in the average level and an increase in educational inequalities”. “The average scores obtained are continuously decreasing from generation to generation, since the one born in 1976,” we read.
Shortly after the publication of the Pisa ranking, the Minister of National Education Gabriel Attal announced measures of his “shock of knowledge”, aimed at reforming the education system using the “Singapore method”. During a press conference, he raised several issues, including repeating a year, learning certain concepts and even access to high school.
Regarding repeating a year, he committed to drafting a decree so that it is the teaching team and not families, as is currently the case, who will decide whether a student repeats his year or not. Teachers will be able, instead of repeating a year, to recommend successful courses during school holidays, on which the move to the next class will depend.
Regarding his “Singapore method”, Gabriel Attal wants the learning of certain concepts, particularly mathematics, to take place earlier in schooling. Another point raised: access to high school. This transition will be conditional on obtaining the certificate from the next school year 2024-2025. Students who fail the certificate exam will have to take a “high school prep” class to catch up.
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