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Hong Kong  teenagers, who learned last week that a major international study has ranked them second in the world in science, can now add maths and reading to the list.
The third Programme of International Student Assessment (Pisa) ranks Hong Kong 15-year-olds third in reading and equal third in mathematics  out of  57 countries and regions surveyed.
The study, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), tested 400,000 randomly selected 15-year-olds  between May and July last year.
Finnish students came top in science and second in both maths and reading. Taiwanese students earned the top marks in maths, while the best readers were from South Korea.
The science scores were issued last week after being leaked to a Spanish magazine.
Taiwan was taking part in the study for the first time.
Previous rounds of the three-yearly study have resulted in changes in education policy among the  30 OECD member states and other participant nations. But some critics have recently begun to question the study's significance, saying it has  become overly politicised and focuses too much on academic performance, and that its results are over-interpreted.
The comparative test scores are weighted around an international average of 500.
In the last Pisa test, conducted in 2003, Hong Kong students came top in maths, third in science and 10th in reading.
Their significant improvement in reading - up from an average score of 510 in 2003 to 536 in the most recent study - mirrors the results of the second Progress in International Literacy Study released last week.
Local 10-year-olds ranked second out of 45 countries and regions tested in that study,  conducted by Boston College, up from 14th in  the same study in 2001.
While the new Pisa study appears to suggest a dip in Hong Kong's maths ranking, the Chinese University of Hong Kong team that conducted the local research for the survey said the top four participants were too close to separate.
There was 'no statistically significant difference between' Taiwan's top score of 549, Finland's 548 and the 547 scored by both Hong Kong and South Korea, according to  the Hong Kong Centre for International Student Assessment of the Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research.
The Education Bureau said  the Pisa scores were a 'great encouragement' to teachers implementing education reforms.
'All along, Hong Kong students have been performing well in scientific and mathematical literacy. It is always a big challenge sustaining high standards and our students have risen to that challenge,' it said.
'We take pride in the significant improvement in our students' reading literacy.'
Cheng Kai-ming, chair professor of education at the University of Hong Kong, said Hong Kong students continued to do very well despite the frequent complaints about the local school system.
But he said the statistics should be treated as a cause for self-reflection rather than celebration.
'We need to know why we are doing well,' the professor said. 'If we are not conscious of why we are making these successes, then they will not be sustained.'
The difference in quality of education between individual schools remained a cause for concern.
Cheung Man-kwong, the legislator representing the education sector, said: 'Our students are very good in exams but tend to be much weaker when it comes to expressing  opinions or thinking independently.'



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South Korea

HK teens up with the world's best at reading and maths