The EBRD region improved its score in the latest PISA education rankings but there is still a substantial gap between it and the OECD average, by Sung-Ah Kyun and Alexander Plekhanov: “Every three years, the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducts knowledge tests among 15-year old secondary school students in all the OECD and a number of non-OECD countries. Last week, the OECD released its latest round of survey results conducted in 2012, which had 65 countries participate worldwide, of which 18 are countries where the EBRD invests. In the EBRD region, three countries ranked above the OECD average: Estonia, Poland and Slovenia. Poland came out as the top improver in the 2012 round of the survey, relative to 2009. Notably, Latvia ranked above the United States and the average of Asian emerging markets. Among the bottom performers, Jordan and Tunisia (the two SEMED countries that participated in the survey) and Albania scored below Brazil and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional averages.”