On 4th December 2007 the results of the latest PISA studies were announced. PISA is the project worked  in order to develop a system for assessing students’ learning achievements which produces internationally comparable information.
Finland was already leading in the previous surveys conducted in 2000 and 2003. The success of Finnish school pupils came as a surprise to some observers then.

The latest PISA survey focuses particularly on students’ abilities in comprehending and tackling scientific problems.

The knowledge and skills of Finnish students in science, mathematics and reading are of the highest order. In science and mathematics they are rated best in the OECD countries and in reading the second best. The main focus in PISA 2006 was science literacy. The mean performance of Finland in science is significantly better than any other country participating in PISA 2006 and Finland's score is the best result ever achieved in any subject area in any of the PISA surveys. Finland's success is based on a uniform performance. The share of poorly performing students is small compared to other OECD countries and the differences between schools are smaller than in any participating country.

Tests were carried out among 400,000 students in 57 countries in 2006. In Finland the PISA 2006 Survey was carried out by Finland’s National PISA Centre which operates at the Centre for Educational Assessment at the University of Helsinki. In Finland, altogether 144 Finnish-language and 11 Swedish-language schools participated in PISA 2006. A total of 5,265 students were selected to take part and 4,714 answered the questions, which makes 90% of the original random sample.

Poland was ranked a bit below OECD avarage result.

Source: http://www.helsinki.fi/en/index/koulutusjaopiskelu/uutiset/419c5b77e273a98c27b451e1542a4cca.html

More information:  www.oecd.org