Bosnia and Herzegovina placed 62nd on the 2018 PISA test, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on its web portal.

Slovenia was placed 21st, Croatia 29th, Serbia was 45th and Montenegro was 52nd.

The first two of the total of 79 places went to China and Singapore.

Estonia, Canada, Finland and Ireland were the best ranking Western countries and the were placed from fifth to eighth. The US was 13th, while the UK was 14th, Germany was 20th, France 23rd, and Russia 31st.

At the bottom of the list were the Philipines, the Dominican Republic, Kosovo, Lebanon and Morocco.

The PISA test is the OECD's programme and it is conducted every three years across the world.

The PISA test assesses the efficiency of educational systems.

It tests the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students. Three areas are examined – reading and literacy, mathematics, and financial literacy, and each test identifies one area as the “dominant” area which is thoroughly checked.

It assesses “students’ ability to use knowledge in everyday life situations, how they analyse, think and communicate in an efficient way,” said Teri Rocher, an official at the DEPP's Office of Student Evaluation, Statistics Division of the French Ministry of Education.