Singaporean students' creative thinking tops global study

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 study found that 15-year-olds in Singapore had the highest scores when it comes to creative thinking.

Around 6,600 students from around 165 schools in the country participated in the study, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Education, Channel News Asia reported.

The PISA is a worldwide study that tests 15-year-old students on core subjects. It also tests non-traditional subjects, including problem-solving and creative thinking.

Creative thinking assessment, which has been conducted for the first time, measures students’ capabilities to generate, evaluate and communicate ideas, along with problem-solving across 64 economies that implemented the creative thinking cognitive test. The creative thinking scores were announced on Tuesday, while math, reading and science results were announced in December last year.

Besides creative thinking, Singaporean students also topped the charts when it comes to math, science and reading.

Hong Kong's students scored their creative thinking capabilities below the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average. However, they ranked first overall when it comes to education equity, the difference in academic performance among students with different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Singapore was ranked at the top with a score of 41 out of 60, followed by South Korea and Canada, both at 38.

Students from Australia, New Zealand, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Belgium, Poland and Portuga also performed above the OECD average in creative thinking (33 points).