Page urges Education Ministry to come clean on Pisa 2015

The Parents Action Group for Education (Page) has urged the Education Ministry to provide detailed explanations on Malaysia’s performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2015.

In a statement today, Page said the ministry must explain why only 51 percent of those assessed were from schools, falling short of the 85 percent requirement for Malaysia to be ranked on Pisa 2015.

“In the past two assessments we were able to achieve over 90 percent responses. Although the Education Ministry has attempted to explain what this shortfall entails, it remains unclear as to what it really means.

“To avoid further speculation on the cause of this shortfall the Education Ministry should clearly describe and explain at length the discrepancy at hand,” said the group.

Pisa is a triennial international survey produced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to benchmark the performance students worldwide.

In 2015, over half a million students, representing 28 million 15-year-old students in 72 countries, took the internationally agreed two-hour test. They were assessed in science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem solving and financial literacy.

‘Ministry’s reputation at stake’

Unlike previous Pisa reports, Malaysia was not ranked as the data collected does not fit the organiser’s requirements.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming speculated that this could be because the data was skewed to cause an over-representation of respondents from High Performing Schools (HPS) and Fully Residential Schools although they represented a fraction of Malaysia’s student population for Pisa 2015.

The Education Ministry has yet to address this matter directly, prompting Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua to speculate that a cover-up operation is under way.

What the Education Ministry did claim was that OECD had admitted to weaknesses in the computer-based Pisa assessment, which Page said requires a detailed explanation.

“We would like to know what these weaknesses are and what measures will be taken to avoid a similar situation being repeated.

“The students who were involved in the assessments, their parents and especially teachers including the public who have a vested interest in the education of the young too would like to know why Malaysia did not get ranked.

“The credibility of the Education Ministry is at stake,” said Page.- Mkini