The Economist: Are adults forgetting how to read?
"Are you smarter than a ten-year-old? New data suggest that a shockingly large portion of adults in the rich world might not be. Roughly one-fifth of people aged 16 to 65 perform no better in tests of maths and reading than would be expected of a pupil coming to the end of their time at primary school, according to a study released on December 10th by the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. Worse still, adults in many places have grown less literate over the past ten years."
Here is the OECD's Survey of Adult Skills.
There are big gaps between countries.
There are only 8 countries where less than 20% of adults have primary school level of reading skills. These are Japan (top with only 11% of poorly performing adults), Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium.
OECD countries with the highest percentage of adults with literary skills below that of a 12-year-old are Chile (55% !), Portugal (42%), Poland (40%), Lithuania (38%), Israel (36%), and Italy (34%).
For numeracy proficiency (maths skills), the top of the list is the same as for literacy except that Britain is replaced by Estonia and Switzerland.
The worst performing countries for maths are Chile (55% again), Portugal (40%), Poland (38%), Italy (36%), United States (34%), Israel (34%) and Lithuania (32%).
The third type of skill is the proficiency in adaptive problem solving. The only countries with less than 20% of adults underperforming children are Japan, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands — although Britain, Belgium and Estonia are close behind with 21%.
The worst performers are Chile (55%), Poland (49%), Italy (46%), Lithuania (46%), Portugal (42%) Israel (40%), Croatia (39%), South Korea (38%) and Hungary (38%).
The survey also compared average scores between adults with highly educated and low-educated parents. In that regard Spain was by far the best performing country in all three categories, which suggests that the Spanish education system does a good job at teaching people across all socioeconomic classes.
In contrast Israel and Hungary had the biggest gaps in scores of adults with highly educated vs low-educated parents. For literacy Switzerland also showed a very big socioeconomic gap, while in the United States that gap was largest for numeracy.
I was wondering if the poor results of Israeli adults and the big gap between people with highly educated and low-educated parents might be because they included Palestine within the data for Israel. I checked the 200 page report but there is no mention of Palestine at all. So apparently it's only Israeli people.
"Are you smarter than a ten-year-old? New data suggest that a shockingly large portion of adults in the rich world might not be. Roughly one-fifth of people aged 16 to 65 perform no better in tests of maths and reading than would be expected of a pupil coming to the end of their time at primary school, according to a study released on December 10th by the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. Worse still, adults in many places have grown less literate over the past ten years."
Here is the OECD's Survey of Adult Skills.
There are big gaps between countries.
There are only 8 countries where less than 20% of adults have primary school level of reading skills. These are Japan (top with only 11% of poorly performing adults), Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium.
OECD countries with the highest percentage of adults with literary skills below that of a 12-year-old are Chile (55% !), Portugal (42%), Poland (40%), Lithuania (38%), Israel (36%), and Italy (34%).
For numeracy proficiency (maths skills), the top of the list is the same as for literacy except that Britain is replaced by Estonia and Switzerland.
The worst performing countries for maths are Chile (55% again), Portugal (40%), Poland (38%), Italy (36%), United States (34%), Israel (34%) and Lithuania (32%).
The third type of skill is the proficiency in adaptive problem solving. The only countries with less than 20% of adults underperforming children are Japan, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands — although Britain, Belgium and Estonia are close behind with 21%.
The worst performers are Chile (55%), Poland (49%), Italy (46%), Lithuania (46%), Portugal (42%) Israel (40%), Croatia (39%), South Korea (38%) and Hungary (38%).
The survey also compared average scores between adults with highly educated and low-educated parents. In that regard Spain was by far the best performing country in all three categories, which suggests that the Spanish education system does a good job at teaching people across all socioeconomic classes.
In contrast Israel and Hungary had the biggest gaps in scores of adults with highly educated vs low-educated parents. For literacy Switzerland also showed a very big socioeconomic gap, while in the United States that gap was largest for numeracy.
I was wondering if the poor results of Israeli adults and the big gap between people with highly educated and low-educated parents might be because they included Palestine within the data for Israel. I checked the 200 page report but there is no mention of Palestine at all. So apparently it's only Israeli people.
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