OECD Student Assessment: Georgia 70th among 79 Countries

The latest international student assessment from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has placed Georgia in the 70th place among 79 countries, ranking alongside Kazakhstan and Panama.

The result is found in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Released on Tuesday, the ranking presents results of tests on about 600,000 students aged 15 in 79 states across the world.

Published every three years, the report follows a series of tests that students sit in volunteering countries or regions to identify their knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science. The test aims to identify what knowledge the students have as well as how they can use it for comprehension or finding solutions to scientific challenges.

The national average score for Georgian students in reading was identified at 380, placing the country between Kazakhstan (387) and Panama (377), with the top-ranked Chinese provinces of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang at 555.

Ranking in mathematics saw Georgia at 398 points compared to China's four regions at 591 and the bottom-ranked Philippines at 353. In science, the national score was 383, in contrast to the OECD average of 489.

The scores show a decrease for Georgian students since the previous PISA report in 2015, where the country score was 411, 401 and 404 in the three categories respectively.

By Ana Dumbadze