Macau students score among the world’s best on PISA 2022

Local students have achieved high scores in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Focused on measuring 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges, the local students have put Macau among the best countries and regions of the world. Macau came second in mathematics , third in science and seventh in reading skills among 81 countries and regions around the globe.

Macau was only surpassed in mathematics by Singapore and in science by Singapore and Japan, with the city-state topping the scores in all three categories of PISA 2022 tests.

Although the results show that Macau students are among the very best of the 690,000 secondary-level students who took the tests, Macau’s results also show drops in the scores except for science.

In mathematics, Macau scored 552 points (6 points less than in PISA 2018), while in reading, local students achieved a score of 510 points (15 points less than in PISA 2018). The score in science (543 points) was the same as four years ago.

The scores put Macau well above the average for OECD countries and regions and even above some neighboring regions such as Hong Kong or Taiwan, although these also scored results in the top 10 for all categories, except for Hong Kong in reading (11th overall).

The inequalities among Asian countries and regions are also well displayed in the PISA 2022 report that has at both the top and the bottom several Asian countries and regions.

As one example, Cambodia was the country that scored lowest in all three categories with the Philippines also being in the last three to six positions of the list.

On the results obtained by Macau students, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEDJ) is said to be very pleased with the outcome and performance, noting that globally Macau was in second place worldwide, just behind Singapore, a record that DSEDJ described as “historic.”

Besides the overall score, the DSEDJ also noted that the local education system has achieved success in reducing the gap between students from socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Among high-performing countries/economies, Macau has the weakest relationship between students’ literacy performance and socioeconomic status (i.e., the impact of socioeconomic and cultural context on students’ mathematics literacy performance is relatively smaller),” DSEDJ said.

“Macau’s socioeconomically disadvantaged students outperformed students with similar situations in different countries/economies, and even outperformed many of the more advantaged students in the participating countries/economies,” the bureau added, citing the conclusion of OECD report that considered the local education system of high quality in terms of fairness and inclusion.

Students competencies trending up

The Macau-China PISA Study demonstrates that in the past 20 years, Macau’s performance in the three core competencies has maintained a steady upward trend, according to national project manager Cheung Kwok Cheung.

According to the scholar, who is a professor at the University of Macau, Macau’s grade repetition rate has dropped in recent years. He said there is also an increase in the number of students studying at the same age in the same grade, which significantly increases students’ sense of belonging.