Full Breakdown
Global PISA 2025 Results Reveal Diverging Trends in Student Achievement
9/8/2026, 11:41:42 AM
Core Event
The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) released its 2025 findings on September 8, testing roughly 760,000 fifteen-year-olds in 91 countries and economies. Most nations recorded declines in reading, mathematics and science, while a few jurisdictions posted stable or improving scores. England’s teenagers outperformed peers in most countries, Israel experienced the steepest drops among OECD members, Ireland remained above the OECD average despite a decade-long decline, Australia recorded its lowest reading and maths scores, and Singapore retained top-rankings across the three domains.
Background & Context
PISA, conducted every three years, measures students’ ability to apply knowledge to real-world problems. The 2025 cycle followed the COVID-19 pandemic and, for Israel, a year-and-a-half of armed conflict that disrupted schooling. The OECD highlighted a global trend of weakening literacy and numeracy, linking part of the decline to increased digitalisation and reduced reading for enjoyment.
Data & Statistics
| Jurisdiction | Reading | Maths | Science | OECD rank (reading) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England – top 10 internationally; ahead of US, Australia, Finland, France | – | – | – | – |
| Israel – 436 (OECD avg 461) | 433 (OECD avg 463) | 442 (OECD avg 482) | 31st/38 in reading, 33rd in maths & science | 31st |
| Ireland – 500 (down from 521 in 2015) | 480 (down from 504) | 500 (stable) | 7th in reading, 14th in maths, 15th in science | – |
| Australia – 10th in science & reading, 16th in maths | – | – | – | – |
| Singapore – 1st in reading, 2nd in maths & science | – | – | – | – |
Additional points: 29 % of Israeli students failed to reach basic proficiency in all three subjects (OECD avg 19.7 %). In Australia, 41 % reported classroom noise versus the OECD average of 31 %. Singapore reported that 15 % of its students are “academic all-rounders,” the highest proportion among participants.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
- The Guardian emphasizes England’s steady performance, whereas the OECD stresses a universal decline, creating tension between national narratives of success and global concerns.
- Israeli officials attribute sharp score drops to wartime disruption, while the OECD points to structural issues such as digital distractions, leaving the precise weight of each factor unquantified.
What’s Next
- The OECD will release a detailed follow-up report later in 2026, examining the impact of digital device policies on student attention.
- Israel’s education ministry plans a review of assessment timing during emergencies.
- Singapore’s Ministry of Education will expand the ComLink+ programme to additional schools in the upcoming academic year.
These findings underscore the heterogeneous nature of educational outcomes across the OECD, highlighting both resilience in certain systems and persistent challenges linked to digitalisation, socioeconomic disparity, and external disruptions.
