Students from Singapore and South Korea performed best in a test of creative problem-solving launched by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Paris-based organization said Tuesday.

Students in these countries are quick learners, highly inquisitive and able to solve unstructured problems in unfamiliar contexts, according to the results of OECD's first Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) problem-solving test published Tuesday.

A total of 85,000 students from 44 countries and economies took part in this computer-based test, which involved real-life scenarios to measure the skills young people will use when faced with everyday problems such as setting a thermostat and finding the quickest route to a destination, said the OECD.

Students from Japan and China were also among the top-performing groups, while those from Canada, Australia, Finland, England, Estonia, France, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, the United States and Belgium were above the OECD average.

According to the report, around one in nine of 15-year-old students across OECD countries are able to solve the most complex problems, compared with one in five in Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

"Today's 15-year-olds with poor problem-solving skills will become tomorrow's adults struggling to find or keep a good job," said Andreas Schleicher, acting director of Education and Skills at the OECD.

"Policy makers and educators should reshape their school systems and curricula to help students develop their problem-solving skills which are increasingly needed in today's economies," he added.