An investigation by newspaper Dagens Nyheter shows that Swedish pupils who do well in the national test have done badly in the international Pisa study.
This may soften the blow landed on Sweden’s education system by the Pisa results, which showed Sweden getting worse results, and sinking at a faster rate than any other of the rich countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Dagens Nyheter has analysed the results of the mathematics test and found that Swedish pupils who got top marks in the national test in mathematics answered half of the Pisa questions wrong.
The paper interviewed 100 of the 15-year-old pupils who take the national test and who were covered by the the Pisa study; many said they do not take the Pisa test seriously, since it does not affect their school score. They also said they were tired by taking a lot of tests around the same time.
But the head of the Pisa study in Sweden, Magnus Oscarsson, says in the past there were fewer tests, and the Pisa results were still poor. He adds that motivation for taking many tests is also an issue in other countries.
Source: Radio Sweden - TT
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