Irish students rank second highest for reading ability in Europe and fifth highest in the world, an analysis of international education trends has revealed.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) survey, less than 3 per cent of school-goers here showed serious literacy problems, a significantly better result than most of the developed economies surveyed.
Students here also scored highly for "scientific literacy" but did not perform so impressively in maths, hovering above the OECD average.
The Programme for International Student Assessment study will be welcomed by the Government which has been accused of presiding over low literacy levels in previous surveys.
But the OECD sounded a disapproving note, pointing out that education spending in the Republic is significantly lower than in many other developed states. It suggests students here are forced to work harder to achieve their grades because of lack of investment.
Conducted among 250,000 15-year-old school-goers in 32 industrial countries, the survey concludes that Irish students are more reliant on extra-curricular "grinds" than their overseas contemporaries. Irish pupils ranked above the OECD average in this area, with about 40 per cent getting private tuition or help with study skills
The assessment, which was carried out last year, is one of the most wide-ranging investigations into global education standards. Poor figures for German pupils have already plunged policy makers and politicians there into a re-think. Based on the survey's findings, Irish pupils appear to be particularly strong at using and understanding English. The survey assessed students on their ability to retrieve, interpret and evaluate information. This was done using a range of written texts, including a short story, a letter and information in a diagram.
Performance in this test was broken into six levels, with 14 per cent of Irish students reaching the highest level. The OECD said this group was capable of "completing sophisticated reading tasks" not easily done by most teenagers.
On science literacy the average OECD score was 500 points, with the Republic's students getting just over 510, placing them in ninth position.