One in Five 15-Year-Olds Is Now a Low Performer in Reading, Maths and Science

The numbers landed on 8 September and they were not close. PISA 2025 recorded the lowest average ever recorded in mathematics and reading across OECD countries, the OECD said on release day. One in five 15-year-olds is now a low performer in all three subjects tested — science, mathematics and reading — up from 16% in 2022. Information verified through 22 October 2026.

This was the biggest PISA yet. The assessment involved 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies, representing around 33 million 15-year-olds, with science as the main focus for this cycle, the full report notes.

Reading fell hardest

Reading took the steepest drop. Average scores fell by 28 points across OECD countries between 2015 and 2025, which the OECD equates to about one and a half years of learning. Mathematics fell by 22 points over the same decade, a little over one year of learning. Science behaved differently: average performance there was stable between 2022 and 2025, after trending downward between 2009 and 2022.

Among non-OECD participants the direction was the same, if less sharp. Reading fell by 16 points and mathematics by eight points over the decade, according to the OECD press release.

The European picture is blunter still. Publishing its first EU-level analysis on World Teachers’ Day, the European Commission said one in three EU students underachieve in reading or mathematics, and one in four in science. At EU level, 33.9% of students did not reach minimum competence in mathematics, 31.3% in reading and 25.9% in science. Less than one in ten are top performers in any subject. Top performance has fallen in all three areas since 2015.

The gap narrowed the wrong way

Socio-economic background still predicts a lot. Across the OECD, advantaged students scored 85 points higher in science than disadvantaged students. The gap narrowed between 2022 and 2025. Read why, though. It narrowed, the OECD says, largely because advantaged students performed less well — not because disadvantaged students improved.

The EU brief puts the same point in sharper form: disadvantaged students are around four times more likely than advantaged students to underachieve in science. That is not levelling up. That is the top sliding toward the middle while the bottom stays put.

And this did not start with Covid. The full report states plainly that the weakening of performance predates the pandemic in many countries, pointing to deeper problems inside education systems. In reading, it links weaker literacy to increased digitalisation, longer screen time and falling rates of reading for enjoyment.

Phones, AI, and the distracted classroom

PISA asked about technology this time, and the answers cut both ways. Students tended to perform less well when device use became excessive, or when devices were used for leisure at school, the OECD found. More than one in four students said classmates were distracted by digital devices in most or every science lesson. Those surrounded by distracted classmates performed less well and felt less connected to school.

The EU analysis adds local texture: one-third of EU students get frequently distracted by digital tools during classes, and one-third frequently use AI to summarise a text they have to read. Parental engagement fell in the same period, from 66% in 2022 to 57% in 2025, while four in ten EU students attend schools experiencing serious teacher shortages.

AI itself is not treated as the villain in these documents. Students who did not use AI to draft text outperformed those who did, the OECD reports. Yet among frequent users, students who were taught how to assess the quality of AI-generated information tended to do better than those who received no such guidance. The distinction the data keeps making is between using a tool to think and using it to avoid thinking.

Secretary-General Mathias Cormann put the official line like this: “Technology and AI can strengthen learning… but only when used purposefully and not as a substitute for attention, effort and understanding”.

Some systems moved the other way

Not everywhere fell. Science performance rose between 2015 and 2025 in systems including Lithuania, the Slovak Republic and Türkiye, the OECD noted, and Türkiye, the Slovak Republic, Montenegro, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates both raised their share of top performers and cut their share of low performers in science. The strongest systems across all three domains included Singapore, Estonia, Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei and the United Kingdom.

The Commission, for its part, points to Estonia, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia and Italy as evidence that improvement is possible, and says an Education Package due in November will help EU countries respond.

Analysis: League tables will swallow most of the attention, as they always do. The harder finding sits underneath them. A fifth of teenagers across the OECD now lack foundational skills in all three core subjects at once, and the equity gap is closing only because the advantaged are falling. That combination — lower averages, weaker top end, no gain at the bottom — is worse than a simple dip. It suggests systems are not trading excellence for fairness, or fairness for excellence. They are losing both. The OECD’s own prescription is unglamorous: fewer topics taught in greater depth, investment in teachers, engaged parents, targeted support where need is greatest. None of that photographs well. All of it takes longer than a parliamentary term.

Further PISA analysis follows in 2027. By then the students tested in 2025 will have left school.

Sources

1. OECD — “PISA 2025: Students’ reading and mathematics performance declined sharply across the OECD” (8 September 2026): https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/press-releases/2026/09/pisa-2025-students-reading-and-mathematics-performance-declined-sharply-across-the-oecd.html
2. European Commission / European Education Area — “1 in 3 EU students underachieve in reading or maths amid decline in basic skills and teacher shortages” (October 2026): https://education.ec.europa.eu/whats-new/news/1-in-3-eu-students-underachieve-in-reading-or-maths-amid-decline-in-basic-skills-and-teacher-shortages
3. OECD — “PISA 2025 Results (Volume I)” full report (September 2026): https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2026/09/pisa-2025-results-volume-i_5265bfb1/full-report.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com