Mediawatch: BBC misrepresents Scottish pupils' reading performance

Listeners to BBC Scotland’s flagship lunchtime news show were told this week that “in Scotland there has been a decline in reading performance among 15-year-olds according to international tests.” That is a very misleading account of what the international test PISA shows. In fact, Scottish pupils’ reading performance in the last test was above the OECD average and just half a percentage point below England’s. It was among the highest performing countries in the developed world. 

Scotland has been gaining relative to the average across most of the world’s wealthiest countries since 2015 and in the last PISA test it ranked 14 out of 81 countries in the foundational skill of reading, just above Finland.

Scotland’s raw number is lower than it was in 2000 - but so is the OECD average

A BBC press officer told Believe in Scotland that the claim was based on the difference between Scottish pupils’ raw numerical score in PISA in the year 2000 and that of 2022. But the OECD itself says that results from back then are not directly comparable.

It is true that Scotland’s actual number in the test in the year 2000, the first year of the PISA test, was higher. But so was the OECD average. The OECD average was 500 in 2000. In 2022, it was 476 - a 5% drop. That is similar to the change in Scotland’s and England’s scores which were very similar. 

 

The way the tests were done in 2000 was different

In the first three OECD PISA tests, which started in the year 2000, the reading scale was set so that the average was 500. They have carried on using the same scale but over the last few years. The raw numbers have drifted downwards across the board and the average is lower now. 

The OECD says that the difference is probably due to the much lower number of schools and pupils who took the test for each member country back then. The sampling is now more sophisticated to capture a wider range of students. Other things have also changed since the turn of the century - such as the amount of time children in developed countries spend watching videos and playing games on their phones. 

But the point is that this is not a Scottish-only issue. Most OECD countries have a lower raw number score in reading today than they did in the first year of the PISA test.  The average is no longer 500 so using the raw numbers is misleading. 

 

Scottish pupils' results are well above the OECD average in reading 

Scotland’s worst scores in reading relative to the OECD average came in 2009-15, when the pupils scored about the same as the average. Since then it has been going up. 

That is no mean feat. The PISA tests are conducted in the OECD international grouping of 38 of the wealthiest countries in the world, plus partner countries like China. PISA participants include Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

Scotland’s reading score in the last PISA test was higher than most of this impressive list of countries, many of whom invest heavily in education. It was also higher than most countries that participated - in reading it came 14th out of 81 countries. Scotland’s performance was classed as similar to eight others, including England. Its score in 2022 was just half a percentage point below England, where the UK Government proclaims its children are ‘among the best readers in the world’. 

The BBC press office declined to comment on why, when Scotland’s performance in PISA in reading was among the best in the developed world, listeners were being misled, using data that the OECD itself regards as not comparable. 

 

More Scottish students excel and more reach acceptable levels than OECD average

Scotland’s reading score was about 3.5% above the average in the most recent PISA, which was released at the end of 2023. In Scotland, more pupils than the OECD average also reached the minimum acceptable standard in reading, and more than the average excelled, with almost 10% reaching the highest standard (compared to an average of 7%). 

The countries which did better than Scotland - and England - in PISA were mainly in Asia where the education system involves long hours of study and rote-learning and has been criticised for failing to encourage creativity, and the ability to critically assess information. China is currently trying to address this by rebalancing it curriculum. However, the country which scored second highest in the OECD in reading in 2022 was Ireland. 

Students recorded slightly higher life satisfaction scores in Scotland than England

PISA also asks students to rate their life satisfaction out of 10. The OECD average is 6.75. Scottish students gave an average of 6.48 for this - so it has increased since 2018, when it was 6.25. Students in England, gave the average score of 6.01, down from 6.10 in 2018. That meant that the UK as a whole was almost bottom of the table on this measure, only above Turkey. 

 

How come BBC Scotland asserts that Scottish students are doing worse?

So why does BBC Scotland take data showing that Scottish students are among the best in the developed world in reading and use it to make the assertion that Scottish pupils' standards in reading are slipping? 

The press office refused to explain, saying only that they did not wish to add to the comment about the raw numerical score in 2000. It is probably a case of repeating allegations that have been made by Unionist politicians without checking them thoroughly. 

 

Analysis biased against Scotland

This misleading analysis shows a real bias against Scotland - very similar numbers for England’s reading score in the international tests are taken to mean that English students are ‘among the best in the world’ for reading. That was what the UK government said when PISA 2022 results were published at the end of last year, and this claim has been uncritically repeated by many journalists. 

 

English schools had lower participation rates in PISA

Some researchers have also pointed to lower participation rates among English schools and pupils in the test. In England in PISA 2022, about a third of schools that were asked to participate, and about a quarter of pupils declined, and so the baton had to be passed to other schools, introducing concern about bias in the sample. 

In Scotland, most schools and about 79% of pupils accepted the request - so Scotland didn’t quite make the minimum standard of 80% either, but only by a fraction. That meant the UK results had an asterisk attached. 

 

When the PISA 25  tests come out, watch out for the distorting mirror

PISA is conducted every three years. Field studies are underway now to produce the results for PISA 2025, which cover not only maths, science and reading but also other areas such as life satisfaction and creativity.

When the results eventually come out, which may not be until 2026, Unionist politicians and their client media will put them through the same distorting mirror attempting to show them in the worst possible light.

 

This is an attack on Scottish confidence

The Unionist position is essentially based on the idea that Scotland is uniquely unable to govern itself. Scotland clearly has as much or more in the way of natural resources than other successful independent countries like Denmark and Norway. But many Scots are so used to the idea that they are not good enough to step forward and lead their own country that they can’t believe independence could be successful. 

It is vital to the Unionist project that Scots continue to lack confidence. They have to believe that London and Westminster are much better placed to make decisions for Scotland than people in the country itself.

That’s why it matters that data is being used in a very dubious way to make out that Scots students are doing badly in reading on international tests when in fact they are doing well when measured against other countries. 


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