Pupils in the Hong Kong are among the smartest in the world, according to a survey of academic performance of 15-year-olds in 41 countries, with Finland taking first place and Hong Kong named third.

The survey, which assessed 250,000 of the world's students in mathematics, science, problem solving and reading comprehension, found that Finnish students displayed the best overall ability, followed by South Koreans and Hong Kong pupils.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, conducted for the second time in 2003 by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), comprises a series of questions that measure a student's ability to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to everyday situations.

A total of 4,478 Hong Kong primary students were assessed in this year's survey.

Hong Kong students achieved first rank in the mathematics category, third in science behind Finland and Japan, and took second place for problem solving skills, which places Hong Kong among the top six participants.

While also achieving first place for mathematics in the first survey in 2000, Hong Kong's performance in reading comprehension was less impressive, which also characterizes other Asian participants including Japan.

Scoring 510 for the reading category, Hong Kong was ranked tenth and significantly lower than Finland, Canada and Australia, according to the survey.

Finnish students were the top overall performers in both surveys, while the Netherlands achieved fourth place in mathematics and sixth in science, ahead of the Czech Republic.

Countries with the lowest academic performance were Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and Tunisia.

Meanwhile, the study found that parental involvement and school climate had affected the academic ability of local students.

Researchers said students who communicate with their parents more tend to perform better, while high achievers also had a higher self-concept and self-efficacy, often employing multiple learning strategies.

School climate is another important factor, which includes characteristics such as orderly disciplinary climate, strong sense of belonging and positive attitudes towards school.

Between-school variance in Hong Kong accounted for 46.6 per cent of the test score differences for the mathematics category, and 45.4 per cent and 42.2 per cent for Science and Reading respectively, which is much higher than the OECD average.

"Our study provides very positive proof that with the active involvement of teachers, parents, and schools, we are able to provide our students a quality and equal learning environment," said a researcher from the Centre for International Student Assessment at the Chinese University.

"Disadvantaged schools will be able to provide students a better environment and raise their performance if these schools actively carry out improvement plans and are given more support from the government," he added.

(China Daily HK Edition December 8, 2004)