This is the result of an international school league table - some surprising placings.

rank country %
1 South Korea 1.4
2 Japan 2.2
3 Finland 4.4
4 Canada 5.0
5 Australia 6.2
6 Austria 8.2
7 Britain 9.4
8 Ireland 10.2
9 Sweden 10.8
10= Czech Republic 12.2
10= New Zealand 12.2
12 France 12.6
13 Switzerland 13.0
14= Belgium 14.0
14= Iceland 14.0
16= Hungary 14.2
16= Norway 14.2
18 United States 16.2
19= Germany 17.0
19= Denmark 17.0
21 Spain 18.6
22 Italy 20.2
23 Greece 23.2
24 Portugal 23.6

You can read the complete article here

Read Philip Pullman's article in the Sunday Times! This should put paid to League tables once and for all. What do they mean? Are they really about what we want our children to learn? Testing at all ages! Who sets the tests and what are they for?Really creative kids don't stand a chance-You give the right answer or else! I've been teaching for more years than I care to remember and no parent has ever thanked me for promoting their child in the League Tables. Lovely letters for making their schooldays happy and for looking out for them as if they were my own. That's what education should be about -making schooldays the happiest years of children's lives. The Education System is in great danger. We are making creative people conform to pass tests. Never saw the sense in it myself.I may be a voice crying in the wilderness but please -Stop it now!

I teach too, and am in thorough agreement with you. But try telling that to the local parents! The education committee here are paying lip service to putting less influence (never NO influence!) onto exams and results. They are failing.Here we have exams and tests and dictations at 4. The pressure to get into elite schools, where exam results are high is phenomenal. Thus testing begins almost as they begin to talk. I see that Hong Kong Schools are not listed. The shame of it! I am sure they would be expecting to be high up on a list which could be used as their bible.
I really don't know what it means either. Perhaps more enlightened people should aim for the schools at the bottom of the list for their children.
I must look for that article in the Times if it is online.