Where do England's teenagers place in the world top 20 for problem solving skills?

OECD puts England second highest in Europe and 11th globally.

15:26 02 April 2014

Teenagers around the world were given tests to gauge their level of problem solving skills and now the world league tables have been established with OECD placing England as second highest in Europe and 11th globally.

The top spots were given to Singapore and South Korea suggesting that their 15-year-olds are the greatest when it comes to problem solving. The tests, which consist of maths, reading, and sciences, were taken simultaneously as the Pisa tests.

The tests were designed to examine how well teenagers use their knowledge in practical questions. About 85,000 pupils took the tests, as a sample representing 19 million 15-year-olds. In England, the sample was based on 137 schools.

The test concludes that pupils from Asian countries were particularly strong at learning information. It also concluded that pupils in England were above average at how this information was creatively applied.

Colombia, Bulgaria and Uruguay had the lowest results.

Head teachers' leader Brian Lightman said that the results were excellent news.

"Graduates need core knowledge in subjects like maths and English, but they also need to be able to apply this to tackle complex and unpredictable tasks with confidence," said Mr Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

"Good problem-solving skills give young people an edge in the world of work and prepare them to move into top jobs and leadership positions."

A Department for Education spokesman was quoted by the BBC as saying: "But they also confirm that generally those who perform best in maths, reading and science - Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and South Korea - are also those who do best in problem solving.

"This connection between the core subjects and problem solving underlines why we are focusing on the basics in the rigorous new primary curriculum, and why reformed GCSEs and A-levels will have open-ended questions which encourage lateral thinking."

OECD’s problem solving test top 20 locations


1. Singapore

2. South Korea

3. Japan

4. Macau (China)

5. Hong Kong (China)

6. Shanghai (China)

7. Taiwan

8. Canada

9. Australia

10. Finland

11. England

12. Estonia

13. France

14. Netherlands

15. Italy

16. Czech Republic

17. Germany

18. United States

19. Belgium

20. Austria