
6 Minute English
Which country has the best schools?
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- The PISA rankings reveal that smaller countries often excel in education compared to larger nations, challenging the metrics of comparison.
- Equitable access to education for all students, emphasized by Estonia's approach, significantly contributes to better overall educational outcomes in rankings.
Deep dives
PISA Rankings and Their Implications
The PISA rankings, conducted by the OECD every three years, aim to assess the effectiveness of education systems in teaching key subjects like maths, science, and reading. Despite their intention, the legitimacy of comparing diverse countries has sparked debate, particularly regarding the fairness of comparing large nations like the USA to smaller ones like Singapore. Results indicate that smaller countries often outperform their larger counterparts, which suggests that educational success may not solely depend on size but rather on the systems in place. For instance, while Singapore topped the reading rankings in 2022, larger Western European nations have struggled to keep pace with emerging superpowers like Estonia and Taiwan in educational outcomes.