PRIMARY 4 pupils in Singapore have emerged as the top readers in the world in an international test.
Results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls), which were released ýesterday, showed that pupils here were strong in both foundational and higher-order reading skills compared with their international peers.
They could also navigate digital texts, drawing out central ideas and making simple judgments about the credibility of information.
Conducted every five years, Pirls is an international study that evaluates fourth-grade, or Primary 4, pupils’ reading and comprehension skills, such as interpreting and drawing connections between texts.
A total of 57 education systems across the world took part in the test, which was sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.
The association released the results, with Singapore’s Ministry of Education giving the detailed findings for the Republic.
This was the first time the test could be administered fully online, but the education systems could choose whether to do it on paper or digitally.
Ireland took second spot in the latest 2021 study, followed by Hong Kong, Russia and Northern Ireland.
The findings could be released only in 2023 because the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in delays in data collection.
In the previous 2016 edition, Singapore came in second out of 58 participating education systems.
A representative sample of 6,719 Primary 4 pupils across all 183 primary schools here participated in the study from October to November 2020.
Even with the pandemic, Singapore’s reading literacy scores improved from the previous 2016 edition, with its mean score going up from 576 to 587.
In a statement, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said Singapore is the only education system where students have made steady progress over the 20 years since the Pirls study was first administered in 2001.
It said this could be attributed to refinements made to the English-language teaching and learning curriculum over the past two decades.
More than a third – 35% – of Singapore pupils achieved the highest “advanced” level in the study, which refers to high competency in reading difficult texts and showing higher-order thinking skills.
The international median was 7%.
Liew Wei Li, MOE’s director-general of education, said: “Reading literacy is the foundation for learning and one of the most important skills that our students acquire in primary school. — The Straits Times/ANN
