Students from the Chinese mainland have outperformed peers from other countries in reading, math and science, according to new results from a global education study.

(Photo: VCG)

The survey found that 15-year-old students from Beijing, Shanghai, and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang rank in the top for all three core subjects, with 590 points in science, 591 points in mathematics, and 555 points in reading. Singapore students, who came first in the last survey in 2015, took second place, scoring 551, 569 and 549, respectively.

The findings are part of the 2018 Program International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of the world's richest economies.

The report also highlights the difficultly of improving education even with increased spending. “It is disappointing that most OECD countries saw virtually no improvement in the performance of their students since PISA was first conducted in 2000,” secretary general of the OECD Angel Gurria said.