UAE pupils top GCC reading rankings

Pupils in the UAE outperform their GCC peers in reading, according to the results on an international test.

The scores of the latest Progress in International Ready Literacy Study (Pirls) put the country’s Year 4 pupils ahead of those in the other five GCC countries, ranking the UAE first in the region, and 40th out of the 50 countries that participated in the study last year.

The test includes 12 reading passages and uses around 180 items to measure literacy and information reading comprehension among public and private school pupils, providing scores on a scale of 300 to 700 points.

With a 2016 score of 450, the UAE was also the best performing country for the MENA region, beating Bahrain (446), Saudi Arabia (430), Oman (418), Kuwait (393), Morocco (358) and Egypt (330), among others. The UAE’s score was 11 points better than its previous score five years ago. when the last Pirls test took place.

Minister of State for Public Education, Jameela Al Muhairi, said: “The UAE’s progress in Pirls is part of the efforts and steps taken by the ministry to realise the UAE agenda and Vision 2021 for education indices.

“Reading has always been a key priority to the ministry. To this end, the ministry has launched numerous reading initiatives to enrich the students’ linguistic understanding and boost their reading skills.”

The top performing countries were Russia, Singapore and Hong Kong, with scores of 581, 576, and 569 respectively. Propping up the ranking was South Africa, with 320 points.