December 2013 Current Affairs for Civil Service Exams
NTERNATIONAL
Asian Countries Top OECD’s PISA survey of Global
Education
According to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) latest survey report , which evaluates the knowledge and
skills of the world’s 15-year-olds in 65 countries and has been released on 3
December. The OECD’s PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2012
tested more than 510,000 students in 65 countries and economies on maths,
reading and science. The main focus was on maths.
Highlights of the Survey Report :-
* Asian nations cemented their top positions in an eagerly awaited report on
global education , as their students continued to outshine western counterparts
in maths, science and reading.
* Shanghai again ranked first in maths, science and reading .
* Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea rounded out the top five in maths
skills.
* Already strong performers in 2009, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore
continued to improve their performances in the three categories.
* The report highlighted Italy, Poland and Portugal for showing improvements in
maths skills since the last survey ,but noted drops in Sweden and Finland.
* Peru ranked at the bottom of the list in all three categories.
* 23 per cent of students in OECD countries, and 32 per cent overall, failed to
master the simplest maths problems.Boys performed better than girls in maths.
They scored higher in 37 out of the 65 countries and economies, while girls
outperformed boys in 5 countries.
* Across OECD countries, 8.4% of students are top performers in reading.
Shanghai-China has the largest proportion of top performers – 25.1%. Over 15%
of students in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore are top performers in reading, as
are more than 10% of students in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France,
Ireland, Korea, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway and Chinese Taipei.
Thailand’s PM Yingluck Shinawatra Dissolves
Parliament
Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on 9 December formally dissolved
the country’s parliament and called for new elections.The new elections are
scheduled to take place on 2 February 2014.The members of the opposition party
(Democrat Party) of Thailand resigned en masse from the Parliament on 8
December 2013 to protest a Government claimed by them as illegitimate.The
opposition party of Thailand can’t work in the legislature anymore because the
government is no longer accepted by the people. This will bring in a political
crisis in the country.The opposition party has aligned with the anti-government
protesters, who have staged the biggest rally of the country in the years.
These demonstrations began in November 2013 and aims to oust Prime Minister of
Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra from the office.Yingluck Shinawatra won the
elections in 2011. The opposition party Democrats has not won an election,
since 1992. Democrat Party has won most of the seats on the Parliament in 1948,
1976 and 1992 but has never won an outright Parliamentary majority.
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