Scottish pupils ranked fourth in awareness of global issues study
Scottish pupils have ranked fourth among 27 nations in a test on their understanding of global attitudes.
As part of the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) carried out in 2018 on education systems around the world, pupils were asked to undergo a cognitive test on their knowledge of issues affecting the world.
With an average score of 534, Scotland ranked fourth behind Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong - and was well above the average of 474 for all 27 countries.
Scotland ranked third in a table of pupils with the highest of five proficiency levels at 12 per cent, and saw the most parity between boys and girls among those who took the test.
In an ad joining questionnaire given to pupils, attitudes towards immigrants and other cultures among pupils in
Scotland were consistently better than in the other 27 nations.
In Scotland, 87 per cent of the 2,969 15-year- olds who took par t said they believe immigrants should be able to continue their culture and customs in another country, compared to an average of 76.3 per cent in other nations.
When asked if immigrants should have the same rights as everyone else in the country ,87.5 percent of Scottish pupils agreed, compared to 80.2 p er cent of students in other nations.
In relation to voting rights, 85.4 per cent of S cots pupils believe immigrants should be able to vote in elections after living in the country" for several years ", compared to 72.3 per cent elsewhere.
Overall, Scottish pupils were found to be more aware of global issues than those surveyed in other countries.
Scottish Education Sec retaryJohnS win ney tweeted his approval of the statistics.
He said: "Very strong performance by pupils in Scotland in 2018 PISA Global Competence survey. Powerful evidence of the effectiveness of Scotland's curriculum."
But despite the positive results among pupils, teachers in Scottish schools reported not being trained to deal with such global issues.
In a similar survey of 1,445 teachers in 18 countries, Scotland consistently ranked below average, and in some cases well below average, in teacher training.