Middle East & North Africa




A first-time PISA participant, Algeria scored
poorly in all three subjects.

•   Student performance is below the MENA
    average and nearly 4 years of schooling1 below
    the OECD average.
•   For all three subjects, over two thirds of the
    students do not meet the basic proficiency
    level, which places them at risk of exclusion.

What may be driving poor performance?

•   Socioeconomic background: There are
    differences equivalent to nearly one year of
    schooling between the performance of students
    at the top and low income quintiles.
•   School type: Student performance in private
    schools is roughly two years of schooling
    ahead of their public school counterparts’.
•   Preschool: The performance of students who
    completed more than one year of preschool is
    half a year of schooling ahead of those with no
    preschool education.
•   Gender Gap: Girls outperform boys in Science
    and Reading, with a particularly wide gap in
    Reading, equivalent to one year of schooling.
•   School & Classroom: Algeria’s Sense of
    Belonging Index2 is substantially below the
    MENA and OECD averages. The performance
    of students in the top quintile of this index is
    roughly one year of schooling ahead of those in
    the bottom quintile.
•   Teachers: Teacher-Directed Instruction2 is
    associated with better student performance (18
    points difference in Science scores between
    the top and bottom quintiles in this Index).

     1              ≈
                                         Middle East & North Africa




                                ≈                   ≈




                                    BENCHMARKING AGAINST
                      ALGERIA
                                ≈
                                        MENA & OECD




2   Key to Indices:
                                                                                                                Middle East & North Africa




                                                                                PISA is the OECD’s benchmarking tool to assess
                                                                                achievement and application of key knowledge and
     •   Reimbursable Advisory Services for                                     skills of 15 year-olds. PISA tests proficiency in
         Fiscal Coordination Program (including                                 mathematics, reading, science, and problem-solving.
         the Education Sector)                                                  It was launched in 2000 and is conducted every
                                                                                three years, with a focus on one of the subjects in
                                                                                each round. In 2015, the focus is on Science. The
                                                                                test was taken by representative samples from 72
                                                                                countries, including nearly 540,000 students. Six
                                                                                MENA countries participated in this PISA round:
                                                                                Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Tunisia and the
                                                                                United Arab Emirates.


Note: In 2015, the OECD introduced several improvements to the design, administration, and scaling of PISA. For the most part, these changes did not
affect the comparability of the 2015 results with those for previous assessments. For further information and implications for analyses of PISA data, please
consult the PISA 2015 international report. Source: OECD, 2016. PISA 2015 Results (Volume 1): Excellence and Equity in Education. Paris: OECD.