Nearly a third of all 15 year old boys in Iceland can’t read for comprehension, according to the latest PISA survey.
Only two other countries score lower in reading skills, Chile and Mexico.
PISA stands for Programme for International Student Assessment and is carried out worldwide by the OECD, testing the performance of 15 year olds in mathematics, science and reading.
The results of the 2012 survey were presented on Tuesday morning, showing e.g. that knowledge of math amongst 15 year olds in Iceland is average compared to other OECD countries.
In fact, 10th graders now are half a year behind on their math than 10th graders were ten years ago, RÚV reports.
Icelandic 15 year olds score have the lowest score in science compared to the other Nordic countries and Icelandic boys are doing worse and worse in math and reading, with 30% of them scoring the lowest in reading for comprehension and 20% have the lowest score in math.
The survey also shows that the performance of 15 year old pupils has overall worsened significantly since 2009. Iceland now ranks lowest of the Nordic countries, along with Sweden.
Pupils outside the capital area score lower than those in the greater Reykjavík area and the difference has never before been so significant.
Liechtenstein and Switzerland rank the highest out of European countries but four regions in China, South-Korea, Singapore and Japan are in the top 7 places.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
