According to the Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa)2022, Singapore ranked first in mathematics, science, and reading. The ranking is based on the performance of 6,606 students from 149 secondary schools and 15 private schools, including international schools and madrasahs. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) triennial study on global education was postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the 2018 Pisa study, Singapore was ranked second after China, which did not participate in the latest study because its schools were shut when the survey was performed.
Compared to 2018, Singaporean students retained their performance in math and improved significantly in science. A slight decline was seen in the reading stream in 2022. The decline in reading for Singapore students is similar to that of their counterparts in many other countries and reflects the impact of a global change in reading habits, according to the Education Ministry. In Singapore, 23% of students were top performers in reading, 41% in mathematics, and 24% in science achieving proficiency of five and six on scale.
Singapore had a lower percentage of students who performed inadequately in reading, mathematics, and science, with 11% of students achieving proficiency below level 2 in reading and 8% of students below level 2 in mathematics and science. MOE announced in the press release that Singapore's education system had shown resilience as declared by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) and other international benchmarking studies.
