A report released every three years by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has ranked Turkish students in 31st place out of 37 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in academic success, Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported on Tuesday.
Conducted on 6,890 Turkish students representing 73 percent of 15-year-old students in the country, the PISA 2018 test categorized students’ success in six levels.
Only 3 percent of Turkish students attained the highest levels of 5 and 6. The OECD average was at 9 percent.
Of the 37 OECD members, Turkey ranked 33rd in mathematics and 30th in sciences.
However, the results represented a slight improvement on the last PISA, which was conducted in 2015.
The most striking observation concerning Turkish students was the weakening of critical thinking and the ability to come up with new ideas, according to the report.
The Turkish Ministry of Education released a statement on the report, stating that the country scored higher than it had 2015.