How Singapore students are really doing: The latest PISA results from a well-being lens

PISA 2022 Report

Given the geopolitical tensions, climate change, socio-economic fractiousness and technological disruption that our students face today, how can we as educators empower them to navigate these global challenges and optimise inherent opportunities in the real world they will enter?

In the PISA 2022 report on the assessment of 690,000 15-year-olds from 81 countries or economies around the world, Singapore emerged top in reading, mathematics, science and even creative thinking.

Andreas Schleicher (Director, Education and Skills, OECD), however, argued for the need for holistic education, especially from the perspective of well-being and Gross National Happiness (as espoused by Bhutan), to prepare students to deal with internal and external challenges they face, seize opportunities and flourish sustainably both in school and outside when they build careers in the VUCA world.

In his presentation of the PISA findings at the OECD Global Forum in Bucharest (Romania) in December 2023 and in Paro (Bhutan) in June 2024, Schleicher emphasised how well-being must be at the centre of education – that in fact, learning should bring about wellbeing and well-being can be met through learning.

Growth Mindset

In his keynote at the OECD Global Forum, Schleicher indicated OECD’s interest in students’ exercise of the growth mindset in relation to their mathematics performance (Figure 1). Indeed, it is seen that countries where students have more of a growth mindset typically also do better academically. For instance, while Albanian students often believe that their success depends on the intelligence they were born with, it is the reverse in Estonia, where students see the sky as the limit to their achievements, believing that when they work hard, learn and grow, they will become successful.

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Singapore students, while performing very well academically, struggle with test anxiety and fear of failure. This has been flagged out since the PISA 2018 results which indicated that 70% of Singaporeans expressed fear of failure compared to 50% globally. Indeed, Mr Sng Chern Wei, Deputy Director-General of Education (Curriculum) once emphasised that “we need to encourage more students to have a growth mindset, and … them to see failures constructively… .” (The Straits Times, 2019).

Singapore Students on PISA: Strengths and Weaknesses

In Schleicher’s presentation in Bhutan (June 2024), he highlighted the strengths and areas for improvement of various countries based on a slate of different measured outcomes (Figure 2). Singapore students, specifically, have done well in the following:

• academic performance: which refers to students' acquired knowledge cognitive skills, how well they can use their learning to solve real-life problems
• agency and engagement: students’ ability and willingness to positively influence their own lives and the world around them, by setting goals, reflecting on their roles and responsibilities and acting responsibly to improve themselves and bring about positive change
• engagement with school: the extent to which students assign value to their time at school, put effort in their studies so to achieve good results, and help their teachers create a productive learning environment
• material and cultural well-being: which considers whether students enjoy living and home conditions that are sufficient for their cognitive, emotional and cultural development
• openness to diversity: referring to students’ capacity to establish deep and respectful connections with people from different cultural backgrounds, being aware and open to different perspectives and willing to learn other people’s language, habits and conventions

However, Singapore students could certainly do better in the following dimensions, which happen to be the ones closely tied to their mental health and overall well-being:

• psychological wellbeing – how much students experience positive emotions, are satisfied with their life and believe their life has meaning and purpose
• resilience – students’ beliefs in their ability to withstand stressful and difficult situations, their confidence in themselves and their autonomy as learners
• social relationships – which captures both the quantity and the quality of students’ social networks, reflecting the extent to which students feel accepted and appreciated by their peers, and whether they perceive support and care from their parents and their teachers
• school-leisure balance – putting enough time into academic work while also taking time to enjoy the other parts of one’s life, including social, sporting and cultural opportunities

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This is certainly a call to action for us as educators in Singapore to do what we need, to empower our students with competencies to excel not only academically, but in life. Given that positive education has many evidence-based strategies that teachers can infuse into the curriculum, pedagogy and daily language to help students to flourish, it is essential that we consider how we can best undertake these tools to enable and equip our students to thrive.