OSLO, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- For the first time, Norway's 15-year-old students showed better than average results in reading, mathematics and science in a global education survey, newspaper Aftenposten reported on Wednesday.
The results were according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which measures 15-year-olds' knowledge in reading, mathematics and science and has been implemented every third year since 2000.
In total, 72 countries and regions participated in the survey.
According to the report by PISA 2015 project leader Marit Kjaernsli and PISA project researcher Fredrik Jensen, Norwegian students for the first time performed better than the average among the OECD countries in all three study areas.
The students performed best in reading, but Kjaernsli and Jensen could not clearly point out the reasons for this performance, which was "far above the OECD average."
They said, however, that the knowledge promotion measure from 2006 might have contributed to it, as it defined reading as one of the five basic skills, which led to increased attention and a big commitment to additional reading training.
The report also showed a connection between performance and family background. Family background, however, had a smaller impact on the students' performance in Norway than in most other OECD countries.
This refers to more equal possibilities for students to achieve good results in the three subjects in Norway, regardless of their family background, the report said.
Norway, Iceland and Finland are the three OECD countries with the smallest variation in performances among schools. This is, according to the report, among other things due to the fact that the students usually do not choose their school before high school, but instead attend a primary school which is close to their living area.
The results showed that girl students perform equally well as boys in science, despite lower professional self-confidence and general interest in science than those of the male students.
Both girls and boys, however, showed equal interest in the universe and its history. A bigger number of boys expressed their interest in motion, power and energy, while more girls were interested in how science can help prevent diseases.
