CANBERRA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Australian students are falling behind their Asian counterparts in reading, maths and science competency, according to Andreas Schleicher, co-ordinator of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and director-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s Directorate for Education Wednesday.
Penning a piece in The Australian newspaper ahead of appearing speaking at the Early Start Conference 2017 in Wollongong, Schleicher has said that Australia's education bosses should look to attitudes and systems in nations like China and Singapore - both nations which outpace Australia in education - to reverse the worrying trend.
"Australia used to have one of the world's leading school systems, but over the last decade learning outcomes have dropped to levels closer to the average of school systems in the industrialized world," Schleicher wrote on Wednesday.
"The quarter of the most disadvantaged 15-year-olds in Singapore now show results similar to the average Australian student."
He said that Australia's relatively lazy attitude towards education might be to blame for the poorer results, adding that it could have hazardous long-term effects on the economy.
"And the fact that students in most Asian countries consistently believe that achievement is mainly a product of hard work, rather than inherited intelligence as many Australian students say," Schleicher said.
