Vietnamese students ranked 17th out of 65 participating countries and territories in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey. The high placement reflects the uneven education system in the Southeast Asian country as students are constantly prepared to score high in tests and pass exams, instead of learning actual skills and applying their knowledge. Vietnam ranked eighth in science, 17th in mathematics and 19th in reading. This is the first time that Vietnam, which has the lowest per capital income among participating economies, has joined in the survey. Among five participating Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam was in second place, after Singapore. The other three are Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Vietnamese students even outperformed their peers from many developed nations such as the U.K., France and the U.S. China dominated the PISA exam, taking the top slot in all three subjects. Hong Kong, Taipei, Macau, South Korea, Japan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the Netherlands were also in the group of top performing economies. The test, administered every three years by the OECD, attracted approximately 510,000 fifteen-year-olds in public and private schools in the paper-and-pencil exam in the fall of 2012. While Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien said that the PISA would help Vietnam in evaluating learners’ capacity and improving education quality in a comprehensive manner, senior teacher Pham Toan said that Vietnam’s PISA ranking result is “meaningless” as it does not affect the real quality of the country’s education sector. Vietnam, with improper education development policies, is facing a serious brain drain, Mr. Toan noted. (Sai Gon Giai Phong – Saigon Liberation Dec 5 p1, Nhan Dan – The People Dec 5 p1, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam – Vietnam Economic Times Dec 5 p2, Lao Dong – Labor Dec 5 p2)
