Many Southeast Asian countries are falling behind in terms of education and learning outcomes.

This is based on the 2022 results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global survey conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to evaluate the educational performance of 15-year-old students.

For instance, some Southeast Asian countries have large learning gaps compared to the OECD average, which many developing countries use as a benchmark for improvement.

How can Southeast Asia’s developing countries improve learning outcomes?

The easy answer is to invest more in education. This may come as no surprise, but the international comparisons of PISA results below show that there is a correlation between the academic performance and cumulative education spending per student.

Obviously, PISA results are attributed to many factors other than education expenditure, but it seems that the correlation is particularly strong until cumulative education spending per student reaches 75,000ドル. However, the education budget should be spent wisely to maximize learning outcomes.

Here are four lessons from PISA results in Southeast Asia and the surrounding region on how to make smart investments to improve learning outcomes in PISA 2025 and beyond.

First, use national and international assessment results, such as PISA, to make student learning accountable to citizens.

Indonesia is a case in point. The country’s decentralization policy made it more challenging for the central ministry to monitor the progress of education reform, but PISA helped with regular check-ins every three years. Overall, Indonesia has been successful in maintaining similar levels of achievement when schools have experienced decentralization policies combined with rapid expansion of student enrollment.

However, learning outcomes in Indonesia can be further improved, as there are differences in academic performance across local governments. Based on the assessment results, good practices should be shared across the country for peer learning.

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Second, focus on foundational skills, such as numeracy and literacy, in primary education curricula. An exemplary case is Viet Nam, which achieved a PISA 2022 math score close to the OECD average.

Viet Nam has made this strategic focus, which helps students gain a deeper understanding of core concepts. They also have high quality universities for teacher development and training to make this strategic focus work on the ground. Although the education budget is much lower than in OECD countries, Viet Nam’s stable education spending over time enabled it to maintain this focus.

Viet Nam’s experience suggests that higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills, as measured by PISA, require building blocks with a strong foundation that are developed early in the education system.

This investment does not translate into an immediate improvement in PISA 2025, which measures the learning outcomes of 15-year-old students in reading, math and science. But it is a critical area of investment now for developing countries to make a difference in the medium to long term.

Third, improve the quality of assessment by studying PISA closely. PISA is a unique assessment designed to test critical thinking and problem-solving abilities in a real-world contexts, and high-performing PISA countries such as Japan have made good preparations.

For example, Saitama Prefecture, which is one of 47 prefectures in Japan located next to Tokyo, improved the quality of questions, including high-stakes exams, and introduced a questionnaire on non-cognitive skills by studying PISA.

The prefecture also introduced item response theory and computer-based testing into its own assessment system. The improvements need to be well understood by local teachers and principals, so the communication of new education policies needs to be repeated, respecting their expertise and previous efforts.

Fourth, empower teachers and principals by visualizing improvements in learning outcomes. Today, Saitama Prefecture is considered one of the high performing prefectures in Japan, but 10 years ago, it was struggling with a lower ranking in academic performance.

One of the secrets of success is to gain the trust from teachers and principals by visualizing assessment results. Excellent data visualization can motivate them to take further action for student growth. It is important for teachers to feel the impact of change quickly, and Saitama Prefecture collaborated with data scientists to visualize learning outcomes.

This is similar to Singapore, which is known for high quality teachers and strong leadership in school principals. They are well trained, with government support, to draw implications from assessment data.

It is important to note that academic performance is only one aspect of evaluating an education system. The top Asian countries in academic performance had low scores in some of the non-cognitive aspects of the PISA questionnaire, such as students’ psychological well-being.

Southeast Asian countries scored higher in these aspects, and ideally we would like to develop human capital that is well rounded in both cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions.

PISA can be an important tool for providing data, but it is only part of the core mission of improving education outcomes in the region. This is vital for sustainable development over the long-term.