Finnish school pupils received high rankings in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment survey PISA. The assessment compared the abilities of the youth of different countries to master the skills needed in the 21st century and their attitudes towards learning.

Finland placed first in the comparison of reading skills - the ability to obtain and interpret information. In the evaluation of the materials read and the comparison of new information with that which had been previously learned, Finland was also among the top four countries. Finns ranked third in natural science skills and fourth in mathematical skills.

The survey showed that, despite the high level of skills, the differences between the highest and lowest results were very small in Finland in all of the measured categories. In most industrialised countries, a privileged social background and good results correlated. In Finland, social backgrounds were reflected in rankings much less than on average among the participating countries.

265,000 15-year-olds from 32 industrialised countries participated in the PISA comparison, which is repeated at 3-year intervals. In Finland, 5,000 pupils from 156 schools were assessed.

Source: OECD, Programme for International Student Assessment

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