(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) The sultanate has finished fifth - from last - on the latest global school rankings this year when it comes to maths and science grades among high school students.
Oman stands 72nd among the 76 nations ranked in a report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The sultanate ranked among the last finishers even in the 2012 report which gave it the 73rd position from among 85 states.
Like 2012 this year's report too puts Asian countries in the top five places and African countries at the bottom.
Singapore heads the table followed by Hong Kong South Korea Taiwan and Japan. The five lowest ranked countries are Oman Morocco Honduras South Africa and Ghana.
From among other GCC countries only UAE is under 50 (45th). Bahrain has been ranked 57th Saudi Arabia 66th and Qatar 68th. Kuwait was not part of the assessment.
The OECD report which was authored by Eric Hanushek from Stanford University and Ludger Woessmann from Munich University argues that the standard of education is a 'powerful predictor of the wealth that countries will produce in the long run.'
Oman's GDP growth potential over the lifetime of the pupils has been put at 1427 per cent if all 15 year olds in the sultanate achieved basic level of education the report states.
The analysis is based on test scores in maths and science and an amalgamation of international assessments including the OECD's Pisa tests the TIMSS tests run by US-based academics and TERCE tests in Latin America putting developed and developing countries on a single scale.
The findings will be formally presented at the World Education Forum to be held in South Korea this week from May 19-22. The United Nations is expected to convene a conference at the Forum on targets for raising global education by 2030.
The OECD economic think tank says the comparisons show the link between education and economic growth. 'This is the first time we have a truly global scale of the quality of education' said the OECD's education director Andreas Schleicher.
'The idea is to give more countries rich and poor access to comparing themselves against the world's education leaders to discover their relative strengths and weaknesses and to see what the long-term economic gains from improved quality in schooling could be for them' he said.
'If you go to an Asian classroom you'll find teachers who expect every student to succeed. There's a lot of rigour a lot of focus and coherence' said Schleicher.
'These countries are also very good at attracting the most talented teachers in the most challenging classrooms so that every student has access to excellent teachers.'
The top performer Singapore had high levels of illiteracy into the 1960s said Schleicher showing how much progress could be made in just a few decades.
The UK has been ranked 20 among higher achieving European countries with the US in the 28th place. The study shows that about one in five youngsters leave school in UK without reaching a basic level of education.
The OECD says that reducing this number and improving skills could add trillions of dollars to the British economy.
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