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According to an international study assessment that measures trends in the reading achievement of Grade 4 students, BC students are among the world’s top readers at their grade level and received the highest average score in Canada.

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is administered every five years and is carried out by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). It provides comparative international information on how well students can read after four years of elementary school

Last year, 45 countries and nine Canadian provinces took part in the study and BC students achieved an average score significantly above both the international and Canadian averages and was recognized as one of the top seven jurisdictions in the world.

"As a teacher and a parent myself, I'm delighted with the reading achievements of our Grade 4 students,” says Minister of Education Don McRae.

“For more than a decade, we've made significant investments in early literacy programs, and as this study shows, we're seeing very positive results.”

As part of the assessment, students read passages and answered a number of multiple chose and constructed response questions in two 40-minute sessions.

In total, only four jurisdictions statistically outperformed BC They were Finland, Hong Kong SAR, Russia Federation and Singapore.