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.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS