The Most Failed Countries: Reasons for Failure in PISA

When PISA results are released, almost all researchers, politicians, and educators are beginning to think about the most successful countries. Given the common features and similarities of unsuccessful countries, a different perspective can be gained on the causes of failure. In this study, the educational systems in Peru, Montenegro, Brazil, Tunisia and Turkey were compared with those of the most unsuccessful countries according to PISA 2015 results. It has been observed that the students of these three countries are quite unsuccessful in their understanding of mathematics, science, and reading. These countries are classified as middle-income developing countries by the World Bank. It was found that in Tunisia, all science subjects are taught in French in secondary school. The students in Peru are very weak in mathematics and science. The Peruvian government is looking for a new science curriculum based on hypothesis testing and questioning, instead of traditional methods based on memorization. Radical changes have been made in the science curriculum on the grounds that students in Turkey do not have the necessary scientific background and knowledge-based contexts to understand the debates about evolution. Montenegro is also suffering from many problems with its educational programs. The data for this study was obtained by conducting a document analysis. The results of this study may give the educators another perspective in interpreting the PISA results