Latest global education league tables have ranked children in Singapore as the top performing pupils in the world for maths, science and literacy skills.

Results from the presitigous Programme for International Assessment (Pisa) are published once every three years and aim to chart educational standards across the developed world.

While alternative educators Finland and Estonia - the former particularly hailed for its creative curriculum focusing on play - near the top of the tables, Asian schools perform consistently well in the tests.

The UK jumped ahead to 14th place in sciences this year, but experts have criticised the country's failing maths scores.

Once broken down into devolved countries, the UK's results are even more inconsistent - Welsh schools performed particularly poorly in this year's assessment, leading to empassioned MPs accusing the Welsh First Minister of "failing a generation" in light of the results.

Over half a million students took place in the most recent tests, representing 28 million 15-year-olds in 72 countries and economies.

The Pisa test is designed by education experts around the world and is used to judge whether students can apply what they have learnt in school to real life situations.

It mainly covers science, reading and mathematics, with practical questions on financial problem solving and literacy.

Critics argue that the Pisa rankings are a poor judgement of learning quality, however and are arbitrary at best.

It is certainly the case that education systems with a strong focus on mathematics and problem solving - such as Singapore and Hong Kong - will fare well in these particular assessments.

The tests are unable to take into account a number of other factors that contribute towards successful education systems, however, for instance the arts and more creative subjects, or pupil satisfaction.

They do however provide a wealth of data from across the globe that can be useful in analysing successful and unsuccessful teaching and school systems.