About PIRLS 2016

Exhibit 2 provides the years of schooling and the average age of the students assessed for each participant. The PIRLS target population is the grade that represents four years of schooling, counting from the first year of ISCED Level 1.¹ Level 1 corresponds to primary education or the first stage of basic education, with the first year of Level 1 marking “systematic apprenticeship of reading, writing and mathematics.” However, IEA has a policy that children should be at least 9 years old before being asked to participate in a paper-and-pencil assessment such as PIRLS. Thus, as a policy, PIRLS also tries to ensure that, at the time of testing, students do not fall below the minimum average age of 9.5 years old. For example, England, Malta, and New Zealand assessed students in their fifth year of school to meet this requirement. To better interpret the average ages of students, Exhibit 2 also includes information about the countries’ policies regarding age of entry into primary school and how that tends to work in practice. If students start school at a comparatively older age, they will be comparatively older when they are assessed by PIRLS.