Poor engagement - high results. How can this be?

Who's No. 1? Finland, Japan and Korea, Says OECD
http://www.siteselection.com/ssinsider/snapshot/sf011210.htm
This article was produced after the results of the PISA 2000 survey of 31 participating OECD countries. In my figuring, New Zealand would be next followed by Australia.

The talk about student engagement is interesting

The study also measured students' "general engagement with school," which accounted for "big variations in attitudes to reading and even more so to mathematics."
More than one in four students in 20 of the 28 OECD member countries surveyed "consider school a place where they do not want to go." With 46 percent, Belgium had the highest proportion of reluctant students, followed by Canada (37 percent), France (37 percent), Hungary (38 percent), Italy (38 percent) and the United States (35 percent).
Even students' attitudes, though, weren't an automatic performance determinant. "The relationship between student attitudes and results is complex, and some countries perform well despite below-average attitudes," the study noted.

http://www.kice.re.kr/kice/eng/research3/research3_2003_3.jsp

In PISA 2000, Korean students took sixth place in reading, and recorded the highest average performance in science and the third highest in mathematics among 41 countries. In contrast to the high achievement in the three literacy domains, Korean students showed a low level of interest in learning. Korean students' interest and self-concept in reading and mathematics were lower than most of the OECD countries.

I find it surprising that we see poor engagement figures coupled with high results. What does this mean?