OECD Education Head Schleicher to EF: Global Stagnation on Science Students Performance may Hide Gap

*Strasbourg/OECD Webinar/Angelo Marcopolo/- A Global tendency to augment a Gap in Students' Performance in Science, (from 15 years old), appears during the latest Decade or so, even if it's mainly driven by a Deceleration of former Middle-level areas, as OECD's Directior of Education, Andreas Schleicher acknowleded in fact, in Reply to an "Eurofora" Question, during a special Webinar Q & A Internet Exchange where we had been Invited to actively participate, on this 6 December 2016 Day of Publication of the latest, 2015-made, International Student Assessment Program (known as "PISA") Conclusions for 72 Countries Worldwide.

All in all, with Singapoor as First on 2015, China ranks Today always far Above OECD Average, among the Top Countries Worldwide, near Japan, Viet-Nam, Korea and Canada, followed by Australia (at the Pacific Ocean), as well as Finland, Estonia and Slovenia, Before Germany and Switzerland, etc., (i.e. Middle European Countries, between East and West), etc.

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- "Eurofora"'s asked whether OECD found that "a Lack of Global Progress in PISA (between the Previous Assessment of 2006, and the Latest, New one, of 2015 : i.e. after almost a Decade) might, in fact, Hide a Growing Gap", (among Countries, and/or other Areas, Schools, Students, etc), "or not". 

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 - "Not Necessarily", reacted initialy, but after Careful Thought, OECD's Director of Education, and Special Advisor of OECD's Secretary General, Angel Guria, Andreas Schleicher, However, withOut Excluding that it might be, indeed, the case, in one way or another...

 - "I think that What we (OECD) did see, is that there are some Countries, at the very Top", ("Singapoor is the most prominent example", together with Macao, in China, etc), which  Keep Rising", he admitted.

 - "Meanwhile, there are Countries at the Bottom keep Catching up", Schleicher added.

 - "But, there are still Countries in the Middle Group, that have become somewhat Complacent", ("in other words, they are not changing significantly") ,"and there has been a Lack of Progress in sort of Moving Forward", he concluded.

+ In fact, it's no more about a simple Divide between Rich and well Educated Countries, and Poor and Less Educated Countries, since several Middle or Developing Countries are currently Catching up, i.e. by investing comparatively more in Education than elsewhere, (f.ex. Perou, Colombia, etc), Schleicher observed earlier.

+ To this is added, often, also "a Huge Viarability inside Schools, between Classes", etc, OECD's Education Director pointed out.

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- As far as the overall, Global situation is concerned, indeed, Worldwide, "Since 2006, Less than 1 Quarter (1/4, 25%) of the Countries are Improving their Performance", denounced previously Today, OECD's Secretary General, Angel Guria, speaking from London, at a Parallel event, for this same purpose.

+ This doesn't seem normal, and may provoke concern, also  "Because", at the Same Time, "Science itself is Moving at Lighting Speed", (from "Digital", Physics, Biology, to "Medicine", etc), he observed.

"But the Education of Science", at a Global level, has not moved at the Same Speed", i.e. "Science Education isn't Keeping up", (particularly compared to "Science itself"), and, "this Means, that a Cumulative Debt is created, and Every Day adds to it", Guria Warned.

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In Real Practice, however, Certain Schools might be Performing much Better than Others, in one a same Country, during this period :

- F.ex., France gets an "Average" OECD overall Assessment in PISA, while, in Fact, "a Minority" of French Schools are "performint at very High Levels, compared to the Best Performing Countries", , but "a sizeable Number of Other Schools and Students have a very Low Performance", pointed out in substance PISA-competent OECD Analyst, Carlos González-Sancho, who holds a PhD from Oxford. France is one of the OECD Countries most affected by "Wide Disparities", but "Not Alone", he warned.

Concerning China, another Participant asked whether there was a "Fall in China's results", since, "when Shanghai had participated as a Municipality, in 2012, it was No 1 (of OECD) in all domains", while, "Now", when "3 other Provinces have been added", the "overall Performance (apparently) has Fallen". "Is this a Statisticlly Significant Drop, and What Explains it ?", he queried.  

 - "In this case, I doN't think that we can speak of a Drop, or Increase", compared to the Past, "Simply, Because it's Not Comparable", denied the PISA-specialist OECD Official.
Indeed, "Shanghai's Performance, as a Single Entity, in the Past, and what we (OECD) have this year, which is the Group of 4 Provinces, we canNot say that it has Droped, or gone Up, ...because they are Not the Same Entities".

=> Only "in the Future, if China chooses to Continue with the Current Format of Participation, we (OECD) could speak of a Trend". But, "for the moment, it's Not yet the case, and we canNot speak of a Trend" currently, he Carefuly pointed out. 

                                               
*** Last, but not least, OECD's PISA Specialist, significantly Added, at his own Initiative, the Hypothesis for Shanghai, (which notoriously was No 1 in the World on 2012), to have not "droped, as some (surprized of that 2015 Data's Differend Presentation) questioned,  but, perhaps, rather, "Gone (Further) Up",... as he Warned, in Conclusion.

I.e., mutatis-mutandis, according to a quite Widespread Trend, nowadays Visible almost entirely, at a Global Level, at least as far as Science Education is concerned, (Comp. also Supra).

>>> In other words, it's Urgent, both for China itself, and for the accuracy of OECD's World-wide Assessment on Student's Performances, to clearly Bring Shanghai back in the Map in a Crystal-clear way, f.ex. by including that City in the Next PISA for the 2016-2019 Period (which is just Starting Nowadays), in a Format Comparable (to the Past and/or to the Present) :

-  I.e. if not also as a City, (as in the 2012 Past), at least anew as a Part of a Group of Chinese Regions SImilar to the current 4 (of this 2015 PISA), in order for the Paris-based International Organisation to be Able to Compare in the Future (2012-2018 or 2015-2018 periods), analyse various Possible Causes, and propose Adequate Mesures.

Otherwise, its recent Merger with 3 Other Regions, in the latest such Query made by the International Organisation based in France (Paris), risks to give False Impressions, as far as overall Trends are concerned.

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Meanwhile, at least one Central Point is for Sure : Main Factors for Science Education Performance amelioration Worldwide are "Students' Motivation", as well as "Quality of Teaching", more Widely speaking, as OECD's Education Director, Andreas Schleicher, highlighted, in conclusion of this almost 10 Years-long OECD Comparison in that field (2006-2015) Today.

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Strasbourg hosts OECD's main Annual PanEUropean Parliamentarian Public Debates Forum, thanks to CoE's Assembly, which has 47 Member Countries (including Russia), and several More Observers or other Special status participants accross the World, (as, f.ex. USA, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia, even Australia, etc, recently approached also by China, which has already got such a Status in CoE's body for Cities + Regions : CLRAE, etc), Regularly visited, very actively, by OECD's Secretary General Angel Gurria himself, during Many Years, (Comp., f.ex., several Angel Gurria statements to "Eurofora"+, both in Paris' OECD Headquarters and elsewhere, but more often in Strasbourg's COE HQ).