League tables show Britain behind world in education
UK schools are falling well behind in literacy when compared to other nations, a new report shows.
According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which runs tests in schools every three years, Britain and the US are lagging far behind schools in Asia.
The league tables show that Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan are the leaders in academic subjects such as maths and English, while the UK came in 28th position for maths and 25th for literacy.
Peter Preston, education writer for the Guardian, said: "We demand that entrepreneurs start new businesses to ease the crushing weight of unemployment. But when it comes to turning out entrepreneurs and technical wizards, the job creators of tomorrow, we are way off the pace."
He added that there is no excuse for Britain to be lagging, as other European countries such as the Netherlands consistently have good PISA ratings.
Professor Michael Young from University College London told the Huffington Post that at best, standardised testing can provide a benchmark for how an education system is achieving relative to other systems.
