OECD: Disadvantaged Irish teens among world’s best in science

ALMOST one-in-three Irish teenagers from poorer homes are among the world’s best at science compared to those from a similar background in other countries.

Analysis of the OECD’s 2009 assessment of 15-year-olds in almost 70 developed countries examined what proportion of each country’s disadvantaged students were ranked among the top 25% internationally for those in the same socio-economic groups.

While Ireland’s rankings in reading, maths and science have fallen since 2006, the latest scores, which were published last December, showed that our teenagers were 13th out of 33 OECD countries for science.