Introduction

In 2003, the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted its second three-yearly survey of student knowledge and skills. This report summarises the results. PISA seeks to measure how well young adults, at age 15 and therefore approaching the end of compulsory schooling, are prepared to meet the challenges of today’s knowledge societies. The assessment is forward-looking, focusing on young people’s ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges, rather than merely on the extent to which they have mastered a speciﬁc school curriculum. This orientation reﬂects a change in the goals and objectives of curricula themselves, which are increasingly concerned with what students can do with what they learn at school, and not merely whether they can reproduce what they have learned. Key features driving the development of PISA have been: ...