A new report reveals the latest global education rankings for school systems around the world that best develop young people’s “future skills” such as creativity, entrepreneurship, communication and collaboration.
As in 2018, Finland has retained its peak position in the global rankings of 50 developed and developing countries – the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index, (WEFFI).
Sweden, meanwhile, has improved its position, moving from fourth place last year to second in 2019, while New Zealand has remained in third place overall.
Some of the larger, developed countries saw a fall in their ranking overall. The United Kingdom fell from tenth to 15th place, while the US fell to 22nd place from 18th last year. France fell from ninth place to 14th, while Russia fell from 26th to 33rd place.
However, some countries significantly improved their performance, with Peru rising ten places from 34th to 24th place, and Indonesia rising from 43rd place to 28th.
China and India also improved their position since last year, although China’s performance is notably lower than its successes in the global 2018 Pisa rankings – the Programme for International Student Assessment – where it came top.
“The third edition of the index shows that while more economies have incorporated the future skills agenda into their education policies over the past two years, policy implementation still remains weak in many nations,” Georgia McCafferty, editor of the report, said.
“The index assesses whether school systems equip pupils with “future-oriented skills”, such as critical thinking, communication, entrepreneurship and creativity, assessing young people aged between 15 and 24 in 50 countries.
The study was carried out by the Economist Group and commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation, which was founded by tech billionaire Charles Chen Yidan.
Country | Rank | Rank (2018) |
Finland | 1 | (1) |
Sweden | 2 | (4) |
New Zealand | 3 | (3) |
Singapore | 4 | (7) |
Netherlands | 5 | (6) |
Canada | 6 | (5) |
Switzerland | 7 | (2) |
Australia | 8 | (11) |
Germany | 9 | (7 – joint with Singapore) |
Japan | 10 | (12) |
Norway | 11 | (14) |
Hong Kong SAR | 12 | (15) |
South Korea | 13 | (16) |
France | 14 | (9) |
UK | 15 | (10) |
Spain | 16 | (23) |
Italy | 17 | (22) |
UAE | 18 | (29) |
Poland | 19 | (27) |
Mexico | 20 | (19) |
Chile | 21 | (13) |
US | 22 | (18) |
Philippines | 23 | (28) |
Peru | 24 | (34) |
Colombia | 25 | (20) |
Ghana | 26 | (25) |
South Africa | 27 | (33) |
Indonesia | 28 | (43) |
Israel | 29 | (23) |
Kazakhstan | 30 | (32) |
Vietnam | 31 | (37) |
Turkey | 32 | (38) |
Russia | 33 | (26) |
China | 34 | (39) |
India | 35 | (40) |
Uzbekistan | 36 | N/A |
Brazil | 37 | (31) |
Thailand | 38 | (36) |
Tanzania | 39 | N/A |
Argentina | 40 | (35) |
Ethiopia | 41 | (44) |
Iran | 42 | (49) |
Myanmar | 43 | N/A |
Egypt | 44 | (46) |
Pakistan | 45 | (50) |
Saudi Arabia | 46 | (42) |
Bangladesh | 47 | (45) |
Kenya | 48 | (41) |
Nigeria | 49 | (47) |
DRC | 50 | N/A |
Source.tes.com