Irish 15-year-olds are above average in reading, maths and science, according to a new Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report published today.
The report, Literacy Skills for the World of Tomorrow, analysed how the education system was working for teenagers in over 40 industrialised countries.
In terms of basic reading literacy - defined as the ability to understand, use and reflect on written texts - Irish teenagers were found to be well above average with 14 per cent of students achieving the highest level of proficiency.
On average, 10 per cent of the students reached this level in the OECD area; more than 15 per cent of students in Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom attained the level.
The report sought to broaden the concept of literacy from the traditional notion of the ability to read and write by analysing levels of literacy in science and mathematics.
Students in Hong Kong-China, Japan and Korea displayed the highest mean scores in mathematical literacy. Irish 15-year-olds were fractionally above the average along with students from Australia, Canada, France and United Kingdom.
Japan, Korea and Hong Kong-China also showed the highest performance on the scientific literacy scale. Ireland was significantly above the OECD average along Australia, Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Overall, the report found that countries with higher national income tended to perform better on the combined reading, mathematical and scientific literacy scale than countries with lower national income.