Education in
North Macedonia
Education is crucial for the socio-economic development
of the Western Balkans.
The results below are from the OECD’s Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 survey and
are representative of 15-year-old students in grade 7 and
above.
View results from North Macedonia
(This page is best viewed on a desktop or laptop computer)
Reading
Maths
Science
Average scores
Regional and international educational performance
North Macedonia performs lower than the
regional average in reading and maths, and
higher in science.
Education performance in North Macedonia is inequitable
Socio-economically advantaged students and
girls perform better than boys and
disadvantaged students.
Policies are needed to help all students
succeed.
An important driver, and
reflection, of inequity is
the tracking of students
into general education and
vocational programmes
59% of upper secondary students attend a
vocational programme.
Roughly 67% of these students cannot
read proficiently
Selection into upper secondary programmes is
not equitable:
Boys are 1.4x more likely than girls
to attend vocational training
programmes
Boys
Girls
Disadvantaged students are 2.3x more
likely than advantaged students to
attend vocational training programmes
Advantaged
Disadvantaged
Accounting for gender and socio-economic
status in North Macedonia results in a decline
in the performance gap between general
educational and vocational programmes.
This suggests that student background, in
addition to ability, can largely shape whether
they attend general education or vocational
programmes.
Educational spending in
North Macedonia is low
internationally
More spending could contribute to higher results.
Provision of educational
resources in North Macedonia
is low and inequitable
Principals in North Macedonia reported greater
concerns about resource shortages in:
Schools with more disadvantaged students
Vocational schools
These trends are also seen across Western
Balkans economies and OECD countries.
North Macedonia
Western Balkans
North Macedonia
Teaching practices in the
Western Balkans dier
from international
benchmarks (data from
North Macedonia is
missing)
Compared to the average across OECD
countries:
The Western Balkans tends to use more
teacher-directed instruction
* Data from North Macedonia is missing.
5 average*
The practices commonly
used by teachers in
North Macedonia are
associated with lower
reading scores
More teacher-directed instruction is associated
with lower reading performance and more
adaptive instruction is associated with higher
reading performance in:
the Western Balkans 5* and
OECD countries.
point score
*No data for North Macedonia
Teacher-directed instruction
Adaptive instruction
Positive teaching methods are not practiced equitably in the Western Balkans
Traditional practices such as teacher-directed instruction are more frequently used in schools with more disadvantaged students and vocational programmes
Adaptive instructional approaches associated with higher outcomes more frequently occur in schools with more advantaged students and general education programmes.
Schools Vocational
Programmes Western Balkans
5 average
-0.15 Western Balkans
5 average
-0.09
Schools General
Education
Programmes Western Balkans
5 average
0.07 Western Balkans
5 average
0.04
This is likely to further exacerbate existing performance disparities.
Back to top