East Asian countries lead the world in primary education

December 13, 2012 3:00pm

BOSTON - South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong lead the world in primary education, with their students posting the respective top performances in science, math and
reading, according to two studies released on Tuesday.
  
Fourth-grade students in those countries performed well in all three subjects, with Russia, Finland and Taiwan also landing in the top 10 in all three categories according to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, both of which were conducted by researchers at Boston College.
  
Researchers evaluated 63 countries' performance in science and math and 49 countries' performance in reading.
 
 Rank  Reading           Math              Science
 1     Hong Kong          Singapore      South Korea
 2     Russia                 South Korea  Singapore
 3     Finland                Hong Kong     Finland
 4     Singapore           Taiwan            Japan
 5     Northern Ireland  Japan             Russia
 6     United States       Northern Ireland  Taiwan
 7     Denmark             Belgium *         United States
 8     Croatia                Finland           Czech Republic
 9     Taiwan                England           Hong Kong
 10    Ireland           Russia            Hungary
                                         
 * Belgium ranking applies to Flemish-speaking schools
- Reuters