How to improve PISA scores: more teachers and happy students

My guess is that if you’re working in a school – whatever its type and wherever you are – then the publication of this week’s international league tables (PISA tests) passed with barely a whimper.

That’s as it should be. 

Here at ASCL we remain sceptical about quite how much different contexts and cultures can be assessed in a meaningful way. Nevertheless – well done to a teaching profession that, despite the swirling politics and societal crossness with everything, continues to do great work across our schools and colleges, especially in helping young people with the ongoing slow emergence from the effects of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, for those not actually working in classrooms, within hours of the publication of the PISA results, the blame game was in full swing.

In England, Labour took aim at the Conservative government’s record on education, while in Wales the Conservatives criticised the Labour administration, and in Scotland both the Conservatives and Labour took the SNP to task.