The Link between Structural Quality Indicators in Pre-primary and PISA Science Literacy Skills: A Cross-Country Comparison

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to make a comparison across distinct countries to investigate the relationship between several quality indicators in pre-primary education and children’s subsequent science competency in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) between 2000-2015 years. The cross-national indicators that were used were obtained from previous records, including public and private expenditure, pupil-teacher ratio, enrollment rate, duration, age of beginning in pre-primary education, individual countries' adult literacy rates, and income per capita. The results showed that the relationship between public expenditure, pupil-teacher ratio, income per capita, adult literacy rate and children’s subsequent science performance on the PISA were positively statistically significant at a country-level. One of the important implications of the current study is that countries that spend less (which include Turkey) should plan a detailed pre-primary expenditure agenda for the public sector and raise their current level of public spending.