Global Student Performance Hits Historic Lows in PISA 2025 Tests
28 sources across 20 countries · 1 of them is linked to a state
Who reported this
- elDiarioAR
- Infobae
- La Nacion
- G1
- CNN Brasil
- Folha de S.Paulo
- Der Spiegel
- Deutsche Welle
- Frankfurter Allgemeine
- Le Monde
- France 24
- The Guardian
- BBC News
- La Tercera
- South China Morning Post
- Telex
- The Jerusalem Post
- ANSA
- Asahi Shimbun
- Malaysiakini
- NRC
- Rappler
- The Straits Times
- The Korea Herald
- El Pais
- Neue Zuercher Zeitung
- Focus Taiwan
- Wall Street Journal
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has reported the lowest average performance in history for students in OECD countries across mathematics, reading, and science in the 2025 PISA tests. The assessment, which included 760,000 15 year old students from 91 countries and economies, revealed a widespread decline in skills. Reading scores saw the most significant drop, with OECD averages falling by 25 points. In mathematics, scores fell by 32 points over the last two decades, while science scores showed a more gradual decline. Approximately 29 percent of OECD students were classified as low performers in all three subjects, an increase from 25 percent in 2022.
Regional results varied significantly. In Latin America, Chile and Uruguay emerged as leaders, while Argentina saw a regression in all subjects. Argentina's mathematics score reached its lowest point since the country began participating in the tests, with 76 percent of students failing to reach the minimum performance level. Brazil's results remained largely stagnant over the last decade, though the OECD noted Brazil has reduced its gap with wealthier nations over the long term. In Europe, France and Germany reported declines, with German officials describing the results as dramatic. Conversely, Italy reported results that were above the OECD average in reading, mathematics, and science.
East Asian regions continued to lead the rankings, with China and Singapore achieving the highest scores in science, reading, and mathematics. However, Hong Kong saw a drop in its global rankings, falling out of the top 10 in science for the first time.
The OECD and various education specialists attributed the decline to several factors. A global phenomenon termed rushed readers describes students who respond quickly but incorrectly. Many sources cited the influence of digital screens, social media, and the use of artificial intelligence as contributors to shorter attention spans and a decline in complex reading comprehension. The 2025 survey also found that 86 percent of Brazilian students had used AI chatbots for school activities.
Interpretations of these results differed based on political perspectives. Center left outlets framed the decline in Argentina as a direct failure of the current administration under Javier Milei. In contrast, center right outlets in Argentina and Germany emphasized structural weaknesses and long term societal shifts, such as the impact of digital media and a lack of persistent educational policies over several decades.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- Attributed the poor results in specific countries to the failures of current government administrations.
- Centre
- Focused on the statistical data and the general global trend of decline without assigning specific political blame.
- Centre-right
- Framed the results as a consequence of long term structural failures and the societal impact of digital technology.
Sources
- Centre ANSA: The Pisa report, "student preparation never so low in the Oecd area"
- Centre-left Asahi Shimbun: "Japan's reading comprehension, AI utilization method is the key": Education scholar's analysis of PISA survey
- Centre-left Asahi Shimbun: PISA mathematics score gap between men and women widens: "Relearning" also necessary for lower tier
- Centre BBC News: England up in reading, maths and science rankings as Scotland and Wales fall behind
- Centre CNN Brasil: Pisa 2025 has lowest world average ever recorded in study
- Centre-left Der Spiegel: Pisa results: Study leader explains what is going wrong in schools in Germany
- Centre-left Der Spiegel: Pisa study and the reactions: "It is no use lamenting"
- Centre Deutsche Welle: PISA test reveals alarming drop in reading and math skills
- Centre-left El Pais: Spanish students sink in mathematics and reading in the PISA Report and obtain the worst result in their history
- Centre-left El Pais: The causes of the educational collapse in PISA: students do not read, are less willing to make an effort and grow up with the mobile phone
- Centre-left El Pais: Latin American countries regress in the 2025 PISA report and the United States sinks in reading
- Centre-left El Pais: Educational collapse
- Centre Focus Taiwan: Taiwan students rank 4th globally in science, 3rd in reading: PISA 2025
- Centre Folha de S.Paulo: Difference in science scores between rich and poor reaches 96 points in Brazil, Pisa shows
- Centre Folha de S.Paulo: Understand Pisa 2025 and how the international evaluation works
- Centre Folha de S.Paulo: How do Brazilian students do on Pisa tests? See examples of questions
- Centre Folha de S.Paulo: Rich countries have worst performance in history in Pisa, and Brazil remains stagnant
- Centre France 24: "Alas, not a surprise": maths, reading comprehension... French students' levels at their lowest
- Centre-right Frankfurter Allgemeine: PISA Losers and Winners: "The education system in Germany is losing its claim"
- Centre-right Frankfurter Allgemeine: New study: Germany's PISA crash exposes educational failures
- Centre-right Frankfurter Allgemeine: Pisa study: German students perform historically poorly
- Centre-left G1: Which Latin American countries have better education than Brazil, according to PISA ranking
- Centre-right Infobae: What education specialists say about Argentina's results in the PISA tests: "Students do not understand what they read and learn less and less"
- Centre-right La Nacion: Carlos Torrendell, Secretary of Education after the PISA tests: “The legacy of Kirchnerism is indubitable”
- Centre-right La Nacion: The Government published a statement after the results of the PISA 2025 tests
- Centre-right La Nacion: “The situation is worrying”: the Government attributed the results in the PISA tests to a school trajectory started in 2013
- Centre-right La Tercera: Chile exhibits its worst Mathematics result in PISA and maintains gaps with the OECD: 59% of students do not achieve the basic level
- Centre-left Le Monde: PISA 2025: for Edouard Geffray, minister of education, "we should have questioned sooner the measures to be taken for middle school"
- Centre-left Malaysiakini: Fadhlina must resign over dive in Pisa scores - Bersama
- Centre NRC: Fifteen-year-olds read worse again than three years ago
- Centre-right Neue Zuercher Zeitung: The Pisa study shows: Nearly three out of ten 15-year-olds can hardly read correctly anymore, and surprisingly many doubt scientific findings
- Centre-left Rappler: Philippines’ reading, math, science scores improve in 2025 PISA
- Centre-right South China Morning Post: Hong Kong students drop in global rankings for maths, science and literacy
- Centre Telex: Hungarian students performed worse than ever before in reading comprehension and mathematics on the PISA test
- Centre-left The Guardian: England’s teenagers outperform peers in most countries in maths, reading and science
- Centre-right The Jerusalem Post: 'Catastrophic event on historic scale': Israel plunges in PISA rankings with worst-ever test scores
- Centre-right The Korea Herald: Korean students rank near top globally in PISA despite reading decline
- Centre-right The Straits Times: Two-thirds of S’pore students use AI to help them learn at least once a week: PISA study
- Centre-right Wall Street Journal: AI Use Contributes to Global Decline in Student Reading Skills, OECD Says
- Centre-left elDiarioAR: PISA Tests: without admitting responsibility, the Government blamed "the educational culture of Kirchnerism"
- Centre-left elDiarioAR: Education during the Milei administration: Argentina regresses in all subjects in PISA tests
93% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.