Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The latest PISA report from the OECD's programme for international student assessment, PISA, shows that 15-year-old students in Ireland performed at the average level of participating countries on computer-based assessment of problem solving.

Ireland ranked 17th of the 28 OECD countries that took part in the study, and 22nd out of all 44 participating countries. Countries like the United States, Norway, Denmark and Sweden performed similarly to Ireland, while Canada, Australia, Finland and the United Kingdom performed significantly better than Ireland.

The top six performing countries are in Asia, with Singapore ranked first. The performance of Irish students on problem solving in this PISA study is good but there is considerable room for improvement.

Project Maths and the emphasis on skills development in the new junior cycle student awards, JCSA, offer students and teachers new ways of thinking and learning that should improve our 15-year-olds' problem-solving capabilities.

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