Swimmers from Shanxi University celebrate their success at the 2019 Shanxi Provincial Student Swimming Championship on Dec 1.[Photo/sxu.edu.cn]

Students from the Chinese mainland scored the highest level in reading, science, and mathematics in the latest PISA global education test hosted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), results released on Tuesday showed.

They are followed by students from Singapore and China's two special administrative regions -- Macao and Hong Kong. The top OECD countries were Estonia, Canada, Finland, and Ireland.

The OECD's PISA 2018 tested around 600,000 15-year-old students in 79 countries and economies on reading, science, and mathematics. The main focus was on reading, with most students doing the test on computers.

Students from Beijing, Shanghai, provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, represented the Chinese mainland in this test. In reading, they scored significantly higher than their peers from other countries.

"Most countries, particularly in the developed world, have seen little improvement in their performances over the past decade, even though spending on schooling increased by 15 percent over the same period," said the OECD when releasing the results.

"One in four students in OECD countries are unable to complete even the most basic reading tasks, meaning they are likely to struggle to find their way through life in an increasingly volatile, digital world," it added.