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Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

How are Ireland's 15-year-olds doing in school compared with the rest of the world?

Ireland’s students among top performers in reading, science and maths, but are more dissatisfied with their lives.

IRISH TEENAGERS ARE out-performing our OECD counterparts when it comes to reading, science and maths, a new study of over 500,000 15-year-olds in 79 countries has found.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which takes place every three years, shows that Ireland ranks fourth out of 36 OECD countries and third out of 27 EU countries for reading literacy. Only students in China, Singapore, Estonia, Canada and Finland come in ahead of Ireland.

Meanwhile, there is an average proportion of high achievers in science and a significantly lower proportion of high-performing students in mathematics, compared to the average across OECD countries.

In science, Irish students ranked 17th out of 37 OECD countries, 11th out of 28 EU countries and 22nd out of 78 participating countries, while in maths, they came 16th out of 37 OECD countries and 21st out of 78 participating countries.

Ireland also has a lower percentage of low-performing students in all three subjects than on average across OECD countries.

Girls and Boys

When it comes to gender differences, girls significantly outperform boys in reading. However, in science and mathematics there were no significant differences in 2018, whereas males had significantly higher mean scores in 2015.

The study also explored the use of digital technology for learning both within and outside the classroom. It has found that Irish teens are less likely to use computers or tablets in class and outside class for learning compared to the OECD average.

In regards to the students’ wellbeing, three-fifths of teens said they were satisfied with their lives, which is significantly lower than the overall average across OECD countries. Significantly fewer girls reported that they were satisfied with their life (55%) compared to male students (67%). 

Students in Ireland who are low internet users were more likely to report positive feelings in general and less likely to report negative feelings than heavy internet users.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Joe McHugh, said the overall results were “heartening”.

“It is an envious position to be in and credit must go to the education initiatives being promoted by the department like the National Strategy on Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life (2011-2020) and how these are adopted by our schools, thanks to the dedication of our teachers,” he said.

“Overall in maths and science results are relatively stable and our students are performing at an above average level, yet we can improve further. I am confident that the changes which the junior cycle is bringing will help the development of our students’ critical thinking.

It is no longer just about the facts and knowledge that we teach our young people but helping them see how they can put that into use.

PISA is based on a random sample of 15 year-old students in each of the participating countries. In 2018, 5,577 Irish students in 157 schools took part.

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    Mute Honeybee
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 1:26 PM

    I’d say a lot of the credit goes to the students themselves, the hard work and putting in the effort even with so much distractions makes a difference. When it says average, don’t forget there are young people who work really hard to make this grade and when all is said and done, being a well rounded,happy person is all that is needed.

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    Mute Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 2:31 PM

    @Honeybee: ..and credit to their teachers also.

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 3:27 PM

    @Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: Teachers do a great job in a hard environment when you consider that the educational system hasn’t change in decades if not a century.

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 3:44 PM

    @Jim Buckley Barrett: agree…but at what point are the people in their own profession going to take some ownership and responsibility for making the changes to the ‘educational system’ – the rest of us just pay the taxes that fund the system…with respect its a bit of broken record to have to listen to the teaching profession complain about the education system….by international standards they do a good job…. but they are well paid to do so and have good earnings , pensions job security and paid time off teaching in Ireland – keep a bit of perspective too.

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 3:51 PM

    @Dave Hammond: Dave, no argument on yoru points but change doesn’t happen easily. The education system in Ireland is like a large coporation, and change in a coporation doesn’t just happen at root level but it must also happen at leadership level. In the cases of the educuation system, changes must happen at both ends – from student and teachers to the ministry of education and back down again.

    In Holland, they are applying a self organisaging approach with students so that they take ownership and commit to the education. It’s a great idea and has support and sponsorship from priviate companies. https://eduscrum.nl/en/

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    Mute Valthebear
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 8:15 PM

    @Dave Hammond: think you’ll find teaching is leading the way as regards casual part time work, not a great profession for job security starting off, especially at secondary

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    Mute eric nelligan
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 2:45 PM

    Some major credit goes to the Teachers and Schools, performing so well with historically low levels of funding, high student teacher ratio and teacher worrload in comparison to the other countries ranked in the study.

    Its just a shame that the changes made to the Junior Cert will certainly destroy the progress being made.

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    Mute offtheball
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 5:18 PM

    Take a bow teachers!! Would love to see where we come in the list with regard to spend on education and how this compares with our place on these lists.

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    Mute Terrence Edwards
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 2:21 PM

    This is great but I’m sure someone will manage to turn good news into a moan about the govt, the housing crisis or Ireland in general.

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 3:28 PM

    @Terrence Edwards: Pretty sure you just did!

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    Mute Dave Stewart
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 5:30 PM

    @Terrence Edwards: not of great advantage to them if their still living in mommy and daddy’s box room at 30 years old though is it.

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    Mute Michael Purcell
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 6:32 PM

    … and yet the Govt spends the least amount of GDP on education in the OECD! This cannot continue. If they invested properly our students would be eminently more employable & would reach their potential.
    Massive discrepancies between underprivileged & wealthier classes still evidenced in numbers accepted into college …

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    Mute The Oracle
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 2:51 PM

    We often wonder if a ‘wellbeing industry’ forum discussed ways to maximise profits. It seems that some people or lobby are intent on promoting the idea that all our young people are suffering from mental health issues. Did they agree that if you keep pushing wellbeing on impressionable young people they would be roped in to the whole process? Lots of people have serious mental health issues. However, saying that exam stress is the same as this completely devalues real sufferers. This shite is driven by the desire of an industry to make money and nothing else.

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 3:32 PM

    @The Oracle: Wellbeing programs in schools and companies is an excellent approach, espeically when you look at how many young people have killed themselves due to stress, if wellbring programs save just one life, its worth it.

    As for the exams, those are a complete joke, we cran 6 years of work into one exam per subject (two in some cases). So if you have a bad day, it goes all to hell. Where else do we do this? In college you have module based exams, do overs if you do badly, in jobs you have nothing like this yet we put that pressure on our youngest.

    The education system in this country needs a do over, it is ran the same way now that it was decades ago.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 8:05 PM

    Good News. A lot is due to home influence, the early encouragement of a reading habit, and the work of teachers. A book-crammed home is an educative home.

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    Mute Bríd Uí Mhaoluala
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    Dec 3rd 2019, 8:00 PM

    The figures are even more impressive when you consider that many countries select students who are well above average to dm these tests.

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