The results of Belarusian lyceums and gymnasiums in all areas of the international PISA study, which was conducted in the republic's educational institutions for the first time, are comparable to the indicators of educational institutions leading in the global ranking. This was announced today at the BELTA press centre by Yuri Miksyuk, Director of the Republican Institute for Knowledge Control.
"All schools, all general secondary education institutions that participated in the PISA studies, showed good results. We also have leaders (lyceums, gymnasiums) that showed results on par with global leaders in PISA – China, Singapore, Japan, and Finland. However, it should be understood that the conditions in our country and, for example, in Singapore or in the urbanised territories of China, differ significantly," said Yuri Miksyuk.
A total of 236 educational institutions in Belarus participated in the PISA study, including 27 gymnasiums and 6 lyceums. Their selection was carried out randomly by an independent US organisation, Westat. The testing of 15-year-old Belarusian schoolchildren under the international programme for assessing the quality of knowledge was conducted in April-May 2018. The test materials were prepared in Russian and Belarusian. The testing session consisted of a cognitive test, for which two hours were allocated, and a questionnaire (35 minutes were given for its completion). The testing process was supervised by national and international observers.
The testing covered three main areas: reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy; however, the priority in the PISA 2018 study was the assessment of reading literacy. The main goal of the study is to evaluate the practical skills of schoolchildren, how they apply theoretical knowledge in life.
The head of the RIKZ noted that the experience of Belarusian educational institutions participating in the PISA study will be applied in the future when developing tasks aimed at determining the level of preparation of Belarusian schoolchildren. "These kinds of tasks, which we call 'noisy' tasks with excess information, should be familiar to Belarusian students, and they should be prepared for them. The study will help us very accurately identify and address weak points in preparation and training," Yuri Miksyuk pointed out.