Ghana has been ranked last among 76 countries in the biggest global school ranking conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economic think tank.
The analysis, based on test scores in maths and science in 76 countries, is a much wider map of education standards than the OECD’s Pisa tests, which focus on more affluent industrialised countries. The latest Pisa test in 2012 polled 65 countries and regions.
OECD’s education director Andreas Schleicher said: “This is the first time we have a truly global scale of the quality of education.” The OECD economic think tank says the comparisons show the link between education and economic growth.
“The idea is to give more countries, rich and poor, access to comparing themselves against the world’s education leaders, to discover their relative strengths and weaknesses, and to see what the long-term economic gains from improved quality in schooling could be for them,” said Mr Schleicher.
Singapore is the top performer but it had high levels of illiteracy into the 1960s, he added, showing how much progress could be made.
The rankings are based on a combination of international tests taken in different regions, putting developed and developing countries on a single scale. The report, published by the OECD, argues that the standard of education is a “powerful predictor of the wealth that countries will produce in the long run”. It also wrote: “Poor education policies and practices leave many countries in what amounts to a permanent state of economic recession.”
This latest league table, ranking more than a third of the world’s nations, also highlights the decline of Sweden – ranked 35th – with the OECD warning last week that it had serious problems in its education system. The United Kingdom came in 20th place, among higher achieving European countries, with the United States in 28th.
The findings will be formally presented at the World Education Forum in South Korea next week, where the United Nations is to convene a conference on targets for raising global education by 2030.
The UK is in 20th place, among higher achieving European countries, with the US in 28th.
Below is the table of how the various countries fared in the survey
1. Singapore
2. Hong Kong
3. South Korea
4. Japan (joint)
5. Taiwan (joint)
6. Finland
7. Estonia
8. Switzerland
9. Netherlands
10. Canada
11. Poland
12. Vietnam
13. Germany
14. Australia
15. Ireland
16. Belgium
17. New Zealand
18. Slovenia
19. Austria
20. United Kingdom
21. Czech Republic
22. Denmark
23. France
24. Latvia
25. Norway
26. Luxembourg
27. Spain
28. Italy (joint)
28. United States (joint)
30. Portugal
31. Lithuania
32. Hungary
33. Iceland
34. Russia
35. Sweden
36. Croatia
37. Slovak Republic
38. Ukraine
39. Israel
40. Greece
41. Turkey
42. Serbia
43. Bulgaria
44. Romania
45. UAE
46. Cyprus
47. Thailand
48. Chile
49. Kazakhstan
50. Armenia
51. Iran
52. Malaysia
53. Costa Rica
54. Mexico
55. Uruguay
56. Montenegro
57. Bahrain
58. Lebanon
59. Georgia
60. Brazil
61. Jordan
62. Argentina
63. Albania
64. Tunisia
65. Macedonia
66. Saudi Arabia
67. Colombia
68. Qatar
69. Indonesia
70. Botswana
71. Peru
72. Oman
73. Morocco
74. Honduras
75. South Africa
76. Ghana
