Taiwan was identified as one of only four countries and economies demonstrating “overall resilience” amid COVID-19 disruptions a Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Ministry of Education (MOE) said last week.
Taiwan along with Japan, Korea and Lithuania was also one of only four countries and economies where the education system displayed overall resilience, the PISA report conducted last year.
Taiwan maintained student well-being and math performance across all social groups, with 87 percent of Taiwanese students reporting a sense of belonging at school, which improved from 85 percent in 2018, the report said.
Photo: CNA
PISA is a tri-annual Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) assessment that measures the knowledge of 15-year-olds.
It was originally planned to take place in 2021.
However, the assessment was postponed a year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year’s assessment, which focused on mathematics, reading and science, found that the average world performance fell.
The scores for math and reading dropped 17 and 11 points on average in OECD nations, while scores in science fell by 4 points.
Although this decline could be attributed to the COVID- 19 pandemic, PISA said that performance trends had been falling before the pandemic, indicating that other factors were also at play.
Taiwan, which was named “Chinese Taipei” in the PISA report, was one of the few countries and economies that bucked that trend, as it had scores and rankings in all three subjects moving upward.
The average Taiwanese student scored 547 in math, which is higher than the OECD average of 472 and put Taiwan third among 81 participating regions.
Taiwan scored 515 in reading, higher than the OECD average of 476, ranking fifth overall.
In science, Taiwan had a score of 537, significantly higher than the OECD average of 485, ranking fourth.
At a news conference on Tuesday reporting on the PISA results, the MOE said that the performance gap between students from different socio-economic backgrounds has slowly improved.
Students from the poorest 20 percent of households scored an average of 471 in math, just under the OECD average of 472.
Peng Fu-yuan (彭富源), head of the ministry’s K-12 Education Administration, said that digital learning, which received a big boost from the pandemic, has helped close the gap between urban and rural areas.
The success of digital-based education can be attributed to its speedy adaptation by teachers on the front line, Peng said.
The resilience of Taiwanese students is highlighted by their exceptional performance, he added.
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