PISA 2025: OECD reading and math scores hit record lows

Published on September 8, PISA 2025 Results (Volume I): Future-Ready Students draws on assessments of more than 760,000 students representing roughly 33 million 15-year-olds in 91 countries and economies. The ninth cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment focused on science, alongside reading, math and a new assessment of computational problem solving.

Average OECD scores reached their lowest levels recorded in PISA across all three core subjects. Reading fell from 489 points in 2015 to 461 in 2025, math from 485 to 463, and science from 489 to 482. Between 2022 and 2025, reading declined by about 14 points and math by 9, while science remained broadly stable.

Reading fluency also weakened. Across 35 OECD countries, the share of students classified as accurate and fluent readers fell by 7 percentage points between 2018 and 2025. Meanwhile, the proportion of “hasty” test-takers, who gave unusually fast and incorrect answers on reading-fluency tasks, nearly doubled from 6.6% to 11.4%.

One in five students across the OECD performed below the baseline level in science, reading and math simultaneously, up from 16% in 2022. The OECD said these students lack the foundational skills needed for further education, employment and everyday life.

The report noted that declining performance predates the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, pointing to deeper challenges within education systems. Socioeconomic gaps narrowed between 2022 and 2025, but largely because results among advantaged students deteriorated rather than because disadvantaged students improved.

Some education systems bucked the trend. Science scores rose between 2022 and 2025 in Costa Rica, the Slovak Republic, Türkiye and the United Kingdom among OECD members. Other participants recording improvements included Georgia, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

Singapore and the Chinese jurisdictions of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, assessed jointly, were the leading systems across the three core subjects. Estonia, Japan, Korea, Macao, Taipei and the United Kingdom also ranked among the top ten in all three.

The findings highlight a mixed relationship between technology and learning. Moderate use of digital devices for learning was associated with stronger science performance, while heavy use and digital distraction were associated with weaker results. More than one in four students said classmates were distracted by digital devices in most or every science lesson.

Students who did not use AI chatbots for schoolwork generally achieved higher science scores than those who did. Among students using AI to help them learn, moderate users scored slightly higher than rare or intensive users. These associations do not establish that chatbot use caused differences in performance.

In the report’s preface, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann urged education systems to favor depth over breadth, helping students master core topics rather than covering extensive material superficially. He called for better alignment between curricula, teaching and assessment, alongside limits on non-instructional device use in classrooms.

Cormann also advocated targeted use of AI for feedback and personalised practice, supporting students’ own thinking and effort.

Kazakhstan was among the 91 countries and economies participating in PISA 2025.

Earlier, Qazinform reported that the main study within the framework of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA-2025) started in Kyrgyzstan on April 1, 2025.