2. Mr K Buchanan asked the Minister of Education for his assessment of the performance of Northern Ireland's programme for international student assessment (PISA). (AQO 653/22-27)

International studies such as the programme for international student assessment (PISA) provide essential insights into our system’s strengths and highlight opportunities to learn from approaches used in other high-performing countries. The 2022 study, published in December 2023, showed that Northern Ireland pupils continued to significantly outperform the majority of education systems in each subject, as they did in the previous study in 2018. In the most recent study, our pupils significantly outperformed 48 education systems in mathematics, 57 in reading and 49 in science.

The PISA 2022 study was especially important in providing the first results for a comparative international study of academic assessment collected during the pandemic for that cohort of 15-year-old pupils. I place on record my thanks to the 80 participating schools for making that possible in very challenging circumstances. While the score for science in Northern Ireland had not changed significantly since 2018, the scores for both mathematics and reading had declined significantly. It is notable but unsurprising, given the impact of the pandemic, that that was also the case, on average, across OECD countries. While those results show our post-primary system to be a strong performer on the international stage, they also demonstrate that we have more to do.

I thank the Minister for his answer. How did Northern Ireland's results compare with those of other jurisdictions and participating countries?

In comparison with other jurisdictions in the United Kingdom, results in Northern Ireland were significantly above those of Wales and not so different from those of Scotland. However, Northern Ireland's scores fell significantly below the average scores in England. Scores in England have dropped across all subjects since 2018, but the differential was less than in other UK regions.

An OECD analysis of the PISA 2022 results across the 81 participating countries found that, in spite of challenging circumstances, 31 countries and economies managed to at least maintain their performance in mathematics since PISA 2018. Among those, five countries maintained or further raised already high levels of student performance. Those systems, which were in Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Switzerland, showed common features, including shorter school closures, fewer obstacles to remote learning and continuing teacher and parental support, and they can offer further insights and indications of broader best practices that can be addressed in the future.

We have performed well, but my ambition for the next 10 years is that Northern Ireland will be the best-performing country in the United Kingdom. I want to see that change to how we deliver our curriculum so that, 10 years from now, we will be the best-performing country in the UK. That is my ambition and, I trust, the ambition of the House.

How does the Minister plan to address the significant gap in the average scores between the most and least disadvantaged pupils?

We recently announced the RAISE programme for reducing educational disadvantage. That builds on the 'A Fair Start' report. We are identifying how to provide support through a whole-community approach. There are some really good examples of that. I was at one project this morning in East Belfast with Gavin Robinson, where we looked at how they work in partnership with schools and with all the community organisations and at how they can take that forward. We spoke about that in the House in a recent Adjournment debate about work that the West Belfast Partnership Board (WBPB) does. The RAISE programme that we are moving forward with will give us an opportunity to bring forward further improvements in areas of social disadvantage and educational underperformance.

It is definitely right to say that there are high levels of educational achievement in Northern Ireland in specific areas. We should be proud of that, and no one should doubt it. However, it is also the case that, society-wide, there are real problems with the high number of people leaving school without any qualifications, relative to other jurisdictions, and with the impact that that has on our overall economy. What specific actions does the Minister want to take during his stint in office to address that long tail of educational underachievement?

I will build on my answer to the Member for West Belfast, Mr Baker. Mr O'Toole is right to want to make sure that we equip our children and young people with the best possible opportunity for career progression in our economy. That is why the Department of Education and the Department for the Economy between them have a framework approach for 14-to-19-year-olds. How do we make sure that they get the right skills to get on and progress economically? We are taking forward work such as the RAISE programme and early intervention that is vital for equipping our young people with the best possible opportunities.