Scots pupils’ grip on global issues strong

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%, and saw the most parity between boys and girls among those who took the test.

In an adjoining 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% of the 2,969 15- year- olds who took part said they believe immigrants should be able to continue their culture and customs in another country, compared to an average of 76.3% in other nations.

When asked if immigrants should have the same rights as everyone else in the country, 87.5% of Scottish pupils agreed, compared to 80.2% of students in other nations.

In relation to voting rights, 85.4% of Scots pupils believe immigrants should be able to vote in elections after living in the country “for several years”, compared to 72.3% elsewhere.

Scottish Education Secretary John Swinney 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 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.

Just under one in five teachers in Scotland reported being trained in teaching in a multicultural or multilingual setting during their initial education and 14.2% said they had been trained in the past 12 months while on the job, compared to 30.4% and 19% respectively in other countries.

Just over 35% said they had been trained in teaching about equity and diversity during their initial course in Scotland, compared to 45.4% in other countries.

However this picture shifted when it came to onthe-job training, with 40.7% of Scottish teachers reporting learning about equity and diversity in the past 12 months compared to 31.1% in other countries.

SURVEY: Scottish pupils ranked fourth among 27 nations which were put to the test.