Austria, Germany and the miracle of Pisa

About three years ago something called the PISA study caused uproar in my big neighbour country, called Germany. Pupils from forty countries where tested and it turned out that Germany ranked very low. Dumb Germans? This can’t be! A nation was in shock, everyone was to blame, the government, the teachers, the lazy pupils and students. Politicians promised to reform the system and take steps to improve, more money, copy the Finnish system (which had the best results of all the PISA countries) etc.

Well, Austria was on the sunny side… We did better then the Germans. Only a little, but that’s all we needed. While the Germans where complaining that “even” Austria was doing better, the Austrians where very proud to be MUCH (but in truth very little) better then the Germans. So Austria took a nap for three more years, thinking that, as long as we do better than the Germans (but much worse then the Finns, for example), we don’t have to change anything, that our system was doing alright. But now, 2004, Austrians got the wake up call. The new study shows that Austria got worse, while Germany had a little improvement. Just a little, but enough to beat the lazy Austrians!

So, the Austrian nation was in shock, everyone was to blame, the government, the teachers, the lazy pupils and students. Politicians promised to reform the system and take steps to improve… Bla Bla Bla... Deja-vu anyone? Well, Austria is among the countries that spend the most money on education, but still, pupils don’t seem to know much about Geography, Biology and Maths.

Just a couple of days ago, I was listening to a German radio station, the announcer said “Well, Germany isn’t among the best, but at least the Austrians are doing MUCH worse. Hopefully Germany doesn’t decide to take a nap this time.

I’m looking forward to the PISA results of 2007. Will Austria improve? Will Germany improve? Will the Finns still be Number one? It is a pity that Finland isn’t one of my neighbour countries…