OECD Releases 2025 PISA Results Showing Divergent Trends for Philippines and Taiwan

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, which evaluated the academic performance of over 760,000 15 year old students across 91 countries and economic entities. The assessment focused primarily on science, with reading and mathematics as secondary domains.

Taiwan maintained a position among the world's top performers. Taiwanese students ranked fourth globally in science and mathematics, and achieved a record high third place in reading literacy. According to the Ministry of Education and National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan showed resilience compared to a broader global decline in student achievement following the COVID 19 pandemic. In a new category for computational problem solving, Taiwan ranked fifth.

The Philippines saw a marked improvement in its rankings compared to the 2022 results. The country surpassed 18 education systems in reading, 16 in mathematics, and 14 in science. Filipino students achieved their highest PISA scores to date, with mean scores of 373 in science, 371 in mathematics, and 367 in reading. Education Secretary Sonny Angara attributed these gains to the continuing efforts of the Marcos administration. However, the Philippines also recorded an increase in verbal and cyber bullying, with 33 percent of students reporting they were made fun of by peers, up from 22 percent in 2022.

While both reports present the data as positive for their respective nations, the framing differs based on the starting point. A center leaning source frames the Philippines' results as a significant recovery from being near the bottom of international assessments. A center left leaning source frames Taiwan's results as a demonstration of resilience and the maintenance of elite global status amidst a general worldwide decline in scores.