It’s those annoying BOYS, of course. What are the Finns going to do about falling into third place on the OECD rankings?
Overall, compared to the other countries and areas, the results for Finland are excellent," insisted Jouni Vaelijaervi, the director of the Institute of Educational Research, which administers the PISA tests in Finland. But he also acknowledged that getting Finnish boys more involved in school would probably become a central issue in the future. Kaisa Alanne, the principal of the Sakarinmaeen School in the eastern suburbs of Helsinki, insisted boys were not inherently less interested in reading than girls. "It's more about finding the right way to activate them," she told AFP.
Maybe it’s just something in the translation, but I’m not sure “activate” is the right expression. That can backfire.