PISA Test and life skills: when being good at life counts more than academic results

Italian children study more than their foreign counterparts, but despite this they get do worse at school: at least according to the latest PISA test, which showed that Italian school leavers are less well-educated than their peers from other European states such as Great Britain, Germany, Spain and Portugal.  What’s worse, the gap becomes even wider if we consider Singapore, the USA, Canada, Japan, Estonia and Finland.

Contrary to expectations, the worst results are in the humanities, and despite some progress in maths, in Italian we have dropped 5 places in the league table since the last test.  The problem with the scientific subjects persists and as well as a large proportion of students in general, this affects less affluent students, girls, students of immigrant families and those from the south.

Despite this potentially disastrous situation, it would seem that we possess very good life skills which may attenuate the problem of our cultural level: real life skills which can certainly not be learned at a school desk or from a teacher.

When present, these important qualities are ingrained into our DNA, helping us reach our objectives, achieve results and overcome obstacles.

Some people wonder if it is better to be good at school or at life and have realised that, regardless of the results obtained in a PISA  test, very often we are capable of great things in both personal and professional spheres.  This is due to the simple fact that those very life skills that we have just mentioned enable those who have never dedicated much time to studying to make their mark and stand out from the crowd.

In order to understand this concept better, we might consider the sons of the owner of a family business:  the eldest has always studied and achieved excellent results, but has never been a very outgoing person. The younger son on the other hand, has turned out to be less gifted at school, but he has always had an enviable way with words. The eldest has been put in charge of administrative matters, while the youngest has been allocated a commercial role.

The moral of the story? It doesn’t matter if you are good at school or good at life, the important thing (especially when you don’t have much passion for books) is to identify, cultivate and exploit your own abilities as much as possible.

Translated by Joanne Beckwith