The Ministry of Education and Training on December 4 announced that Vietnamese students were among the group of top-performing countries according to the latest PISA survey. Nguyen Vinh Hien, Deputy Education Minister, said Vietnamese students had a higher average score in maths and science and ranked eighth in science, 17th in maths and 19th in reading among participants from 65 countries and territories. The results have surprised the world.

About half a million students from 65 nations and educational systems took part in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which is coordinated by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.

For instance, in maths, Vietnam’s average score was 511 while the international average was 494. Vietnam ranked 17th out of 65. In reading, Vietnam’s average score was 508 while the international average was 496.

In science, Vietnam ranked eighth over 65 and just lagged behind their peers from Shanghai, China's largest city, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Estonia and Hong Kong. The South East Asian country has entered the top 20 and its high average score outperformed many much wealthier western education systems such as Austria, Australia, Denmark, France, the UK, Israel, Switzerland, Norway and the U.S.

The Pisa tests - the Program for International Student Assessment - have become the most influential ranking in international education, based on tests taken by more than 500,000 secondary school pupils. Its tests were designed on the world’s general educational program. This proves that textbooks and curriculum in Vietnam have satisfactory knowledge and skills.
 

PISA assessed the competency of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science (with a focus on mathematics) in 65 countries.

Around 510, 000 students between the ages of 15 years 3 months and 16 years 2 months participated in the assessment, representing about 28 million 15-year-olds globally.

The students took a paper-based test that lasted 2 hours. The tests were a mixture of open-ended and multiple-choice questions that were organized in groups based on a passage setting out a real-life situation. A total of about 390 minutes of test items were covered.

Students took different combinations of different tests. They and their school principals also answered questionnaires to provide information about the students' backgrounds, schools and learning experiences and about the broader school system and learning environment.
 

Vietnamese students shock experts for their high achievements

Vietnamese students surprised the world with their high rankings in science and maths in a report on global education in their first inclusion into the survey, according to the deputy minister of Education and Training, Nguyen Minh Hien.

“In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which was announced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on December 3, Vietnamese students ranked 8th in science, 17th in maths and 19th in reading,” Hien said in an online forum on education held this morning (December 14).

“We were very surprised by the results because, at this first we only expected average achievement levels,” Hien said. “Compared to 65 countries participating in PISA, we ranked lowest in term of GDP".

According to the Vietnamese education and training’s leader, Vietnam faced several difficulties in participation with the survey including a lack of experienced officials, bureaucratic obstacles and students unfamiliar with the format of PISA questions.

When speaking about the lower results in reading and maths, Hien said that the maths question were new to Vietnamese students and took more time for them to understand, and so they could not finish the entire test or made unwitting mistakes. Also, the questions in reading were not similar to what their Vietnamese teachers had trained them in. Meanwhile, the high results in science came as a surprise because Vietnamese students do not study this subject at high school.

Deputy minister Hien confirmed that Vietnam will try to prepare for even better results for PISA 2015.

PISA is the three-yearly report by the Paris-based OECD, based on surveys of more than half a million 15-year-olds in 65 countries. This year Asian nations cemented the positions at the top ranks, as their students continue to outshine Western counterparts, with Shanghai again being ranked first in maths, science and reading, and Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea rounded out the top five in maths.