Taiwan ranked eighth alongside England and Norway in an international survey of reading comprehension for fourth-graders, according to the Ministry of Education Dec. 5.
Conducted every five years since 2001 by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, a Netherlands-based nonprofit, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study gauges students’ reading comprehension on a scale from 300-700. In this year’s survey, Taiwan fourth-graders registered a score of 559, surpassing the global average of 500.
Russia, Singapore and Hong Kong topped the list in that order, closely followed by Ireland, Finland, Poland and Northern Ireland.
Taiwan has steadily improved in the PIRLS over the past decade, moving from 22nd in 2006 with a score of 535 to ninth in 2011 with 553. In this year’s two main subsections, local students scored 548 to rank 17th worldwide in reading for experience, and placed fourth overall in reading for information with a score of 569.
According to MOE Deputy Minister Lin Teng-chiao, the government is committed to strengthening literacy and reading comprehension as evidenced by ongoing efforts and programs to provide students with more resources. The ministry launched an initiative to enhance elementary and junior high school reading standards in 2008, with the project updated every three years.
Government efforts include subsidizing all elementary and junior high school libraries so that they have at least 10,000 volumes. Schools in remote areas with less than 200 students are guaranteed to have available at least 50 books per student.
A total of 4,326 fourth-grade students from 150 elementary schools in Taiwan participated in this year’s study, the MOE said. (KWS-E)
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