Schools across the UK are among the worst in the developed world for teaching pupils to pass tests rather than simply teaching them what they need to know for the future, according to a new study. 

The Oxford University study found that social inequality and the wage gap between skilled and unskilled jobs is driving teachers to teach to test. It said that they are drilling pupils to simply pass tests because of the fact there is a need to get good grades in order to get a well-paid job. 

It added that there is a similar problem across the pond in the US, where there is also an issue with the need for good grades just to secure a high wage in the future, which means people are mainly learning simply what they need to pass tests rather than the wider knowledge they need for the future. 

In the study, experts examined the correlation between a country’s economic inequality and its scores in international tests using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) and the Survey of Adult Skills, which are both administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), comparing the results of 15 year-olds to those for 16 to 24 year-olds. 

In the UK, it was found that British 15 year-olds performed close to average for maths, literacy and problem-solving. But performance dropped significantly among older people aged 16 to 24, which suggested in the UK that learning before tests and exams is 'superficial', giving too much focus on short term knowledge acquisition. 

Lead researcher Danny Dorling, a geography professor at Oxford University, told the Times Educational Supplement that highly competitive nations often see exam results mattering more, which leads to pressure to simply learn certain things rather than subjects as a whole. 

"In both these countries [the US and UK] people try to maximise exam results because young people are entering a labour market where they are going to be paid enormous differences between the minimum wage and the top end," he said.