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Lorraine Mendez reports
By Nakinskie Robinson
The findings of a study by the Programme for International Student Assessment has highlighted the concerning state of Jamaica's education system, ranking the country's students as below average.
The PISA study, conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, assesses the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in mathematics, reading and science, internationally.
Jamaica, a first-time participant in the triennial global education standards study, had a sample of 3,800 eligible students from 147 secondary schools sitting the assessments.
But the findings indicate a damning reality, with students falling below the OECD average score of 472 to 485 in every category tested.
The highest average score is for reading, which sees an overall ranking of 53 paired with a 410 average score.
In contrast, the lowest score is reflected for mathematics, with an average score of 377 or a 67th place ranking overall.
Meanwhile, the Jamaican students accumulated an average score of 403 or a ranking of 61 for science.
Overall the country managed a score of 397 or a 60th place ranking in the 2022 exam.
Jamaica is in company with ten of the lowest ranked countries including Cambodia - with the lowest average score of 337 and Palestine - the highest of the group, with 361.
As the benchmark, the top five countries include Singapore, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, which all have an average score in the mid to low 500s.
The OECD data indicate that a smaller proportion of students in Jamaica, than on average across the 37 participating countries, were top performers at Level 5 or 6 - the lowest ranking in at least one subject.
At the same time, a smaller proportion of Jamaican students than on average achieved a minimum level of proficiency at Level 2 or higher in all three subjects.
Almost no student in Jamaica was among the top performers in mathematics.
The study also concluded that Jamaica's students were not at a disadvantage as equally low-income economies, such as Vietnam and Turkey with students in similar socio-economic backgrounds, scored higher.
It also showed that girls outperformed boys locally in maths and reading, but this is the opposite for some 40 countries globally.
Meanwhile, 31 per cent of students in Jamaica reported that they were not satisfied with their lives with a rating between 0 and 4 on a scale from 0 to 10.
But the OECD notes that for Jamaica, student response rates were substantially lower than the target set by PISA technical standards.
The 2022 PISA test was originally set for 2021 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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