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Russia tops in literacy test

MOSCOW: Junior school children in Russia have the best reading skills in the world, according to a global literacy study released this week.

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, conducted in 2006 by Boston College, assessed ability to read and comprehend literary and informational texts of 215,000 fourth-grade students of about 10 years of age from 40 countries.

Neither India nor China took part in the project.

Russian children ranked first in overall reading achievement with the highest score of 565, closely followed by their peers in Hong Kong, Canada and Singapore (the worst result showed by South Africa was 302).

Russia has jumped from 14th place in the previous study undertaken in 2001. The brilliant performance of Russian children has been the result of “great strides” in primary schooling in Russia as the country bounced back from the post-Soviet crisis of the 1990s, said Rector of Eurika Institute of Educational Studies Alexander Adamsky.

“The school has gradually moved away from dull memorising drills to creative teaching — children are taught to comprehend and analyse texts, draw information and make conclusions,” he said.

The 2001 top scorer, Sweden, has dropped to the 10th position.

England has climbed down from 3rd place to the 19th, and the U.S. has fallen from the 8th to the 18th rank.

The study revealed that children tend to spend more time playing computer games and watching TV than reading books.

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