Thousands to sit Pisa test in Wales
MORE than 4,000 high school pupils across Wales will this term sit a test to assess how well our education system performs against other UK countries and internationally.
The Program for International Student Assessment – known as the Pisa test – will start on October 22 and run until December in 110 schools, the Welsh Government confirmed.
Results will not be published until 2019 but schools and the Welsh Government will be keeping a close eye on performance after Wales’ last set of Pisa scores in 2016 ranked the worst in the UK and trailed other UK and international nations in recent years before that.
Pisa results are widely seen as a gauge for how well Wales’ diverging education system is performing.
After the 2016 results, the fourth time Wales had done worse than the other UK nations, First Minister Carwyn Jones said the results made for “uncomfortable reading”.
The two-hour test is taken every three years by 15 year-old pupils in participating countries including the USA, China, most European nations and all the UK nations.
This year students in Wales will be among more than 540,000 15 year olds in around 80 countries taking part in the test which is run by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The 2016 Pisa results showed Wales was adrift of the global and UK average in reading, maths and science while results for all areas had fallen since 2006.
Scores from that year showed we not only do worse on average than the other UK nations, but also have fewer high performing and more low performing students in science, reading and maths.
Subjects focused on change each year. For Pisa 2018 the main focus will be on reading with science and maths also being tested, the OECD said. There will also be questionnaires.
Pupils eligible to take the test, which is taken in two parts, are selected at random under strict guidelines set by the OECD to ensure candidates represent their county’s school system fairly.
In this year’s test reading will take up 60% of the two hours with science and maths taking up the other 40%.
In the second part of the test, participants will first answer a student questionnaire, which takes approximately 35 minutes, the OECD said.
This involves their attitudes towards reading and their experiences at school.
Afterwards, students answer a second, 10-minute questionnaire, which explores students’ ICT (information and communication technology) activities and attitudes.
This year’s reading tests will look, among other things, at students’ ability to locate information, understand, evaluate and reflect on what they are asked to read. Texts will include web pages and web posts.
Last year Education Secretary Kirsty Williams dropped a key target to improve Pisa scores saying: “It’s not my target.”