Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"Developing countries with few resources to invest in education are likely to have lower levels of literacy among both students and teachers.  Governments of countries with such characteristics may therefore invest more heavily into educating well a small elite to lead the country's industries and government operations while allocating remaining resources for teachers with little training.  When teacher quality is so low, governments may also prescribe to teachers very precise job requirements, instructing teachers what to do and how to do it.  Such systems tend to rely on "Tayloristic" methods of administrative control and accountability in an effort to achieve desired results." - OECD: Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education (2011)

If you read the OECD: Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education report, you can clearly see that the nations (with a few being large cities as the exceptions) are from countries that are developing or have already been developed for many years now.  The likelihood that countries with low socioeconomic standing to be taking this PISA test is very minimal to none.  As the quote from above suggests, the countries that are still developing will begin to model a very "Tayloristic" method, which is a system that instructs teachers about what it is that they are going to teach and how they are going to teach about it.  In other words, a person, with no teaching background required just as long as they are literate, can grab the manual given by the government and teach a classroom full of students.  This is quite alarming because countries are no longer looking at education as a means of exploring or solving problems.  Our children and youth will no longer be taught how to critically assess a concept or situation because politicians and researchers think it is best to just teach them job skills in order to be prepared for the workforce.  As time saving as this method is for corporations so they do not have to spend weeks on job training, it is taking away one of the most important things we can have as human beings: having the ability to critically think for ourselves.