Canada beats the U.S. in ranking of best countries to get an education

Rating by an international independent organization.

Quality and accessibility of education are indicators of an attractive and developed country. To assess its level, there is the International Program for the Evaluation of Students' Educational Achievement or PISA, i.e. authoritative educational rating.

It is compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international economic organization of developed countries that recognize the principles of representative democracy and free market economies. In their new ranking for 2022, Canada beat the United States to become the best educated country in North America.

The best of the best

In 2022, students from 81 countries took a series of tests to assess and compare national averages in education. The tests are usually administered every three years, but the pandemic caused a delay and these results were particularly welcome.

So, the first place went to Singapore, where students showed the best results in math, science and reading, scoring 560 points on its own PISA system. Next in the top 5 are Macau, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

European countries performed worse than usual this time around. Researchers believe this is due to long-term and systemic problems, such as lack of support from teachers and resources.

The first among European countries is Estonia, which scored 516 points and ranked seventh. Pupils here showed particular success in science (526 points). And Ireland ranked ninth, with a particularly good performance in reading (516 points).

Canada, with its 506 points, came in a respectable eighth place and received the highest scores for North America — especially in science. The United States, meanwhile, lagged far behind with a total score of 489 and ranked 18th.

Who's not doing so well

PISA results in math worsened worldwide compared to 2018: by an average of 15 points, which corresponds to about three quarters of the school year. At the same time, reading fell by slightly less, by half a school year, and science education levels remained roughly the same.