What PISA 2022 Reveals About the World’s Top Education Systems (And What ESL Teachers Can Learn)

What PISA Measures (And What It Doesn’t)

Before diving into country comparisons, it is worth being clear about the instrument.

PISA measures:

• Reading comprehension — the ability to analyze, interpret, and evaluate text
• Mathematical reasoning — applying mathematical concepts to real-world problems
• Scientific literacy — understanding scientific concepts and reasoning about evidence

PISA does not measure:

• Speaking or communication ability
• Creativity, critical thinking in open-ended contexts
• Social-emotional skills
• Practical life skills

This matters for ESL teachers. A student from a high-PISA country may have excellent reading comprehension but weak speaking confidence. The skills that PISA rewards — analytical reading, structured reasoning — are not the same skills as fluent communication.

Keep this in mind as you read the country breakdowns below.

PISA 2022: The Top Performers

1. Singapore — #1 in Math, Reading, and Science

Singapore is the consistent PISA leader. The gap between Singapore and other nations is significant: Singapore’s average math score (575) is roughly equivalent to performing four years ahead of the OECD average.

What Singapore does differently: The “Teach Less, Learn More” philosophy, introduced in the mid-2000s, shifted focus from volume of content to depth of understanding. Singapore teachers are among the most highly trained in the world — teaching is a selective profession, candidates are recruited from the top third of graduates, and professional development is extensive.

ESL teacher insight: Depth over breadth. Singapore’s model suggests that covering fewer topics with genuine mastery produces better outcomes than rushing through a broad curriculum. In your ESL class, this might mean spending a full week on one grammar concept until students genuinely own it, rather than introducing five concepts and moving on.

2. Japan — #2 Math, #3 Science, #3 Reading

Japan performs at the elite level across all three domains. Japanese schools are known for long hours and high expectations — but also for specific pedagogical approaches that differ from Western models.

What Japan does differently: “Jugyou kenkyuu” (lesson study) is embedded in Japanese teacher culture. Teachers plan lessons collaboratively, observe each other’s classes, and debrief afterward. It is systematic peer learning as a professional norm, not an occasional PD event.

ESL teacher insight: Collaborative lesson planning is not a luxury. If you have colleagues teaching the same level, even one structured co-planning session per term — where you observe a lesson and debrief — will improve both of your practice more than most professional development alternatives.

3. South Korea — #3 Math, High across domains

Korea’s results are consistently high, though the country shares Taiwan’s challenge: academic achievement comes at a significant wellbeing cost. Korea’s youth mental health data and student satisfaction scores are among the lowest in the OECD, despite (or because of) exceptional academic results.

What Korea does differently: Extremely high expectations for teachers and students. Intensive private tutoring market (the “hagwon” system is Korea’s version of Taiwan’s cram schools). Academic achievement is a cultural priority.

ESL teacher insight: Korea’s results are a useful reminder that high test scores and high student wellbeing are not always correlated. If your goal is outcomes that last beyond the exam — confidence, communication, intrinsic motivation — pure pressure-based instruction has a ceiling.

4. Estonia — #4 Reading, Consistently Strong

Estonia is the surprise in European PISA results. A country of 1.3 million, with no elite private sector and a relatively modest education budget, it outperforms Germany, France, and the UK.

What Estonia does differently: Estonia invested heavily in digital education infrastructure in the 1990s, earlier than most. But more fundamentally, the system emphasizes teacher autonomy. Estonian teachers are trusted to make professional decisions about curriculum and methodology. There is less standardized testing than in many comparable systems.

ESL teacher insight: Teacher autonomy correlates with better outcomes. This research consistently shows up across countries. The practical application: if you are in a context that gives you curriculum flexibility, use it thoughtfully rather than defaulting to the textbook. Your professional judgment about what your specific students need is valuable.

5. Canada — Top 10 Across Domains, High Equity

Canada’s most notable PISA feature is not its average score but its equity score. Canada has one of the smallest gaps between its highest and lowest-performing students. High socioeconomic-status students and lower socioeconomic-status students perform more similarly in Canada than in most OECD countries.

What Canada does differently: Strong teacher unions that have advocated for working conditions and professional development. Decentralized curriculum (each province sets its own) allows for local adaptation. Significant investment in teacher support.

ESL teacher insight: Differentiation matters more than you might think. Canada’s equity results suggest that a “rising tide lifts all boats” approach — investing in the conditions that help struggling students — does not harm high achievers. In ESL terms: supporting your lower-level students does not slow down your stronger ones.

6. Finland — Top 10, Consistently Strong Across Decades

Finland is the most-cited education success story of the past 20 years, though its scores have declined slightly since their peak in the 2000s. Finnish students start formal schooling later than most (age 7), have fewer standardized tests, and have shorter school days.

What Finland does differently: Teaching is one of the most selective and respected professions in the country. All teachers hold a master’s degree. There is virtually no standardized testing until late secondary school. Play and outdoor time are protected.

ESL teacher insight: The Finnish case is a useful corrective to the assumption that more time in school equals better outcomes. Students need unstructured time. Brains consolidate learning during rest. If your students are visibly burned out, pushing harder is counterproductive — build in recovery.

7. Ireland — Top 10 Reading

Ireland’s strong reading scores reflect sustained investment in literacy as a national priority, combined with a predominantly English-medium curriculum that naturally reinforces reading skills.

ESL teacher insight: When students are immersed in the target language across subjects — not just in English class — language acquisition accelerates. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is worth exploring if your context allows it.

Taiwan’s Results: World-Class Scores, Worth Understanding

Taiwan ranks in the top 5 in all three PISA domains — a genuinely impressive result. But it is worth noting that Taiwan’s results come alongside some of the highest reported levels of student anxiety in the OECD data, and survey results showing widespread dissatisfaction with the educational system despite its effectiveness.

A 2025 analysis by educator Tristan Reynolds noted that Taiwan’s education functions as an “adversarial game” — a competition for limited seats in which students are incentivized to outperform their classmates rather than collaborate with them.

This is a useful lens for any ESL teacher working in Taiwan. Your students have excellent academic foundations. They have been trained to perform under pressure, to memorize, and to compete. They are often less practiced at:

• Taking risks in communication
• Making mistakes in public and moving on
• Collaborative discussion without a correct answer
• Using English for genuine self-expression

Understanding this shapes good teaching in this context.

The Insight That Cuts Across All Top Systems

Every high-performing PISA country on this list has one thing in common: it treats teachers as professionals.

That means competitive entry into teaching, sustained professional development, peer observation as a norm, and meaningful autonomy over instructional decisions. The countries with the highest PISA scores also tend to have the highest respect for teachers as skilled practitioners.

The second insight is more nuanced. The philosopher James Carse distinguished between finite games — played to produce a winner — and infinite games — played to keep playing. Most high-performing education systems, at their best, are trying to cultivate lifelong learners: people who want to keep engaging with ideas after the exam ends.

The risk in any high-pressure academic system is training students for the finite game at the expense of the infinite one. Students who are excellent test-takers but who have no intrinsic motivation to keep learning are a poor long-term outcome, even if the exam scores look good.

As an ESL teacher, you can design for the infinite game. Build lessons where the reward is the conversation, the discovery, the connection — not just the score. Help students experience English as something they want to use, not just something they need to pass.

That is the insight PISA cannot measure — but that the best teachers already know.

Summary: One Takeaway Per System

The common thread: the best education systems invest in teacher quality, build genuine understanding rather than exam performance, and remember that education is ultimately about producing capable, curious, lifelong learners — not just high test scores.

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