75
EGRA scores for Jordan are not available for a long period of time. So it is not possible to assess
trends in early grade student performance. However, such data is available for secondary school
age children from international assessments such as TIMSS and PISA ( Figure 3.1.3). In the latest
TIMSS assessment, Jordan was placed 23 points below its earlier rank in eighth grade standard
Science. This was the largest fall among the 39 participating countries. In eighth grade standard
mathematics, Jordan also ranked poorly, 8th among the nine participating Arab countries. 15 The
latest performance is also low by international standards. The top 25% of PISA performers from
Jordan ranked below the bottom 25% performed from OECD countries as well as East Asian
countries like Singapore. One reason for this could be across country differences in years of
schooling completed. For instance, young Singaporeans have 30 percent more schooling than
young Jordanians. However, Singapore outperforms Jordan even after adjusted learning scores
for such differences (World Bank 2018). Moreover, Jordan’s performance in mathematics also
declined in PISA 2015 while science and reading scores showed no significant improvement
during 2006-2015.
Figure 3.1.3: Trends in TIMSS And PISA, 1999-2015 (Jordan)
Source: Author based on data obtained from OECD publications
15
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
2006 2009 2012 2015
PISA scores
Mathematics Science Reading
200
300
400
500
600
1999 2003 2007 2011 2015
TIMSS scores
Mathematics Science