Although not particularly studious, according to the OECD's recent PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) study, Greek pupils are, however, 'champions' in extra-curricular reading, according to the same report.
According to the survey, 82.5 percent of 15-year-old Greek pupils state that they read for pleasure, holding top place among the 35 OECD member countries, with Turkish pupils holding the second place spot in the 2009 report.
Indicatively, the proportion of Greek pupils who read for their own personal enjoyment presented a substantial increase of 4.5 percentage points against base year 2000, while the OECD average fell from 68.8 percent in 2000 to 63.8 percent in 2009.
PISA is an internationally standardised assessment that was jointly developed by participating economies and administered to 15-year-olds in schools.
Broken down by gender, girls appear to have a better relationship with extra-curricular reading than boys, with a 12 percentage point difference. A total of 86.4 percent of girls in Greece read for their own pleasure, against 74.4 percent of boys.
"The fact that a proportion of more than 80 percent of 15-year-old pupils read for their own enjoyment is definitely encouraging," Pavlos Haramis, a teacher and director of the Federation of Secondary School Teachers' (OLME) Centre for Research and Documentation told ANA-MPA, but noted that questions arise regarding what and how much the youth read.
Indeed, in Greece as in the other OECD member countries, the 15-year-olds read mostly magazines in their free time, with 60.5 percent stating that they read magazines on their own initiative "several times" a month or week, followed by newspapers (42.8 percent), comics (24.7 percent), literature (21.5 percent) and dissertations (7.2 percent).
The OECD study also turned up interesting conclusions on the relationship between reading and the internet, with the survey indicating that, in all member countries, on-line reading is linked with higher performance in understanding of texts.
"Pupils who are acquainted with activities such as reading messages in e-mails, forum discussions, on-line news and on-line encyclopedias or seek out information on the web generally have a better reading and understanding ability," according to the report.
ANA-MPA
