The PISA test is a worldwide assessment intended to evaluate educational systems by measuring 15-year-old school students’ performance on mathematics, science, and reading comprehension. The first test was carried out in 2000 and then repeated every three years. Its aim is to provide comparable data with a view to enabling countries to improve their education policies and outcomes.
The PISA test is a worldwide assessment intended to evaluate educational systems by measuring 15-year-old school students’ performance on mathematics, science, and reading comprehension. The first test was carried out in 2000 and then repeated every three years. Its aim is to provide comparable data with a view to enabling countries to improve their education policies and outcomes.
One of the hottest topics nowadays in Romanian media is the situation and quality of the educational system. The issue is – again – on the table, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has recently published the classifications of the 2018 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests, and Romania’s score was lower compared to its previous achievements. Last year, 79 states participated in the PISA test, and Romania was ranked 47th.
Romania’s placement means the educational system of the state is below the international average. A publicist of the ziare.com news portal wrote that the reality of these tests is devastating. The results show a high level of functional illiteracy: 41 percent of the students actually do not understand what they are reading, and 47 percent of them are not capable of correctly doing basic mathematical operations, like converting a price given in RON to EUR. In the 2018 PISA report, Romania is in last place in the European Union in mathematics and is second to last in science and reading comprehension.
In the report, Romania ranks near Bulgaria, Moldova and the United Arab Emirates. The first-place rankings worldwide are occupied by Beijing–Shanghai–Jiangsu–Zhejiang (China), Singapore, Macao (China), Hong-Kong (China), Estonia, Finland, Canada and Ireland. In the EU, top rankings are held by Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Poland and Sweden.
As ziare.com wrote, the situation is sad: 15-year-old students who were tested just passed the national evaluation exams and began 9th grade in high schools. The portal believes that it is “terrifying that the current minister of education of the relatively fresh national liberal government, Monica Anisie, did not propose any solutions and didn’t even seem to realize the gravity of the situation.”
“We do not necessarily have to worry about these PISA tests. In these international evaluations, the focus is not necessarily on what students know, but on the application of knowledge in real-life situations,” quoted ziare.com quoted the minister as saying. One could say that the test results prove that these 15-year-olds, having their heads filled with mechanically learned notions, freeze when are faced with real-life-problems.
In a later statement though, Minister Anisie emphasized that “children need to learn how to decipher and interpret a text.” She also said that as a “Romanian language teacher she had always been adept at critical thinking and in the near future will call on teachers to not ask for the mechanical memorization of interpretations of literature texts.” “Teachers should instruct students on how to understand literature, not make them memorize ready-made interpretations,” declared the minister. She added that the results of these PISA tests also indicate how the exam questions should be constructed at the national evaluations and which skills should be developed more.
In reading comprehension, Romania obtained a score of 428, whilst the international average is 487.
Title image: The minister of education, Monica Anisie did not seem to be disturbed by Romania’s PISA ranking, but admitted that students should understand texts, not memorize interpretations.
Source: wall-street.ro
