‘Students’ performance in PISA does not show improvement in education system’

AMMAN — Although Jordan’s results in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed a nine-point increase in reading, this is not considered an improvement, the coordinator said on Thursday.

“Such a rise in points compared to the previous survey does not indicate a substantial difference. It is statistically significant,” Imad Ababneh, PISA coordinator in the Kingdom, told The Jordan Times.

The results of the assessment, announced by the National Centre for Human Resources Development on Wednesday, showed no improvement in science and no significant difference in the assessment of maths among Jordanian students compared with 2012.

“The overall outcomes of the exam show stability in Jordanian students’ performance in reading, maths and science over the years,” said Ababneh.

He noted that the exam questions focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills, an area “students are not familiar with”.

Targeting 15-year-olds, a total of 250 private, public and UNRWA-run schools took part in the exam.

“Private schools have always outperformed their public counterparts in the PISA tests over the years, while this year showed UNRWA schools performing better than the public ones,” Ababneh said.

Held every three years, PISA is conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, founded in 1960 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.

“The survey will guide us to analyse the weaknesses and be more specific in diagnosing the problems,” said Ababneh.