Colombia ranked 52nd of 65 in the 2009 PISA education survey, carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The survey, based on two-hour tests of half a million 15-year-olds, tested students’ literacy and knowledge of mathematics and science.
The best-educated students were from Shanghai (China), Korea and Finland. Canada ranked 6th and the U.S. 17th.
Colombia is not the only Latin American country whose children under-performed in the survey. Ranked below Colombia were Brazil (53) and Panama (62) and Peru (63). The best performing Latin American country was Chile, which ranked 44th.
Despite ranking low, Colombia did improve compared to last year. In 2009, the average score of Colombian students was 413, which was 28 points higher than the year before.