Albanian 15-year-olds rank last in the world, ranking 64th, in terms of the ability to think creatively.
The data came from the PISA test, collected from the test conducted in 2022, assessing for the first time the capacity of students in creative thinking as well as the ability to produce original ideas in 64 countries and economies of the world.
Publication presented yesterday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is one of five volumes presenting the results of the eighth round of PISA assessment.
According to the report there are substantial differences in the performance of creative thinking between countries and economies.
"The lowest performing system (Albania) has an average student score of 13 points on the creative thinking scale - about 28 points less than the average student in Singapore (the highest performing system),"- clarifies the report.
At the top of the ranking is Singapore, receiving 41 points, followed by Korea and Canada with 38 points and Australia with 37 points.
Albania ranks last with 13 points, being preceded by the Dominican Republic with 15 points, Morocco with 15 points, Uzbekistan and the Philippines with 14 points.
According to the report, there is a very large gap between the country with the highest and the lowest performance.
"The performance gap in creative thinking between the highest performing country and the lowest performing country is very large, around 28 points. Fewer than 3 in every 100 students in the five best-performing countries (Singapore, Korea, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in descending order) perform around or below the average of the five lowest-performing countries (Albania, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Morocco and the Dominican Republic, in order)".
This study is the first on such a large scale to collect data on performance after the disruptions of COVID-19.
"Despite challenging circumstances, 31 countries and economies managed to at least maintain their performance in mathematics since PISA 2018. Among them, Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Switzerland maintained or further raised high levels of student performance, with scores ranging from 487 to 575 points (OECD average 472)”,- says the study.
According to the report, this shows common features that have characterized these systems.
“…including shorter school closures, fewer barriers to distance learning, and ongoing teacher and parent support, which can further provide insights and pointers to best practices to address future crises ".
Civic Attitude: "Creative thinking is destroyed when educational institutions are run by copycats"
The Civic Center has demanded the resignation of the leaders of the Ministry of Education and Sports, considering them to be the main ones responsible for the degradation of students at this level.
"Citizen Attitude asks the political class, civil society and the media to see education as a national emergency, because if education falls, the whole society falls"Qendresa said.
According to them, this situation occurs when institutions are run by people who commit plagiarism.
"Nepotism, political appointments in the education sector, corruption in exchange for grades and jobs are at the root of the collapse of public education in the country, an alarm that the Civic Center has been raising for a decade."
A few days ago activists denounced cases of plagiarism by the heads of public universities in the country, at the time when the elections are being held.
Erisa Kryeziu has completed higher studies in Journalism and Communication and Master of Science in Public Relations at the University of Tirana. She has been a journalist and project manager at Citizens.al for five years, where she reports on social issues and human rights, especially on issues of rights at work, in education, gender equality, marginalized groups, people with disabilities such as and for environmental issues. At the same time, she works as a project coordinator with a focus on youth and media education. User of new reporting techniques such as "Mobile Journalism" and citizen engagement tools in reporting (ECR-Engage Citizens Journalism).
