Phil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil.
Beth
And I'm Beth.
Phil
So, Beth, we're talking about the best education systems in the world today. You went to school here in Britain.
What do you think of the British education system? Do you think it could be the best?
Beth
I think that it's quite good, there's probably a couple of things that I personally would change about it, but I
would say it's quite good, but maybe not the best in the world.
Phil
Well, in this programme, we're going to be talking about the Pisa rankings.
Beth
The rankings are based on tests carried out by the OECD, that's an international organisation, every three
years. The tests attempt to show which countries are the most effective at teaching maths, science and
reading. But is that really possible to measure? Well, here is former BBC education correspondent Sean
Coughlan talking to BBC World Service programme 'The Global Story'.
Sean Coughlan
When they were introduced first of all, that was a very contentious idea, because people said 'how can you
possibly compare big countries... how can you compare America to Luxembourg or to, you know, or to parts of
China, or whatever?'
Phil
Sean said that the tests were contentious. If something is contentious, then it is something that people might
argue about it's controversial. So, at first, Pisa tests were contentious because not everyone believed it was
fair to compare very different countries.
Beth
Phil, I've got a question for you about them. So, in 2022, Singapore was top of the reading rankings. But which
of these countries came second? Was it:
a) The USA?
b)
Ireland? or,
c) The UK?
Phil
I think it might be b) Ireland.
Beth
OK. Well, we will find out if that's correct at the end of the programme. A common pattern in the Pisa rankings
is that the most successful countries tend to be smaller. Talking to BBC World Service programme 'The Global
Story', Sean Coughlan tells us that many large countries from Western Europe don't score that highly in the
rankings.
Sean Coughlan
They're being outpaced and outperformed by these fast, upcoming countries - you know, Singapore, or
Estonia, or Taiwan, or those sort of places which we don't historically think of as being economic rivals, but I
suppose the argument for Pisa tests is, if you want to have a knowledge economy, an economy based on
skills, this is how you measure it.
Phil
We heard that many large European countries are being outpaced by smaller nations. If someone outpaces
you, they are going faster than you - at a higher pace.
