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.