PISA 2025: Record Drop in Reading and Math Scores, Test's Creator Also Blames AI

The OECD published the results of the PISA 2025 study on September 9, with more than 760,000 fifteen-year-olds from 91 countries and economies taking part. The findings are alarming: global reading scores fell by 28 points between 2015 and 2025, which the report calls the sharpest decline since the study began. Andreas Schleicher, the creator of the test, links part of this trend to young people's growing use of artificial intelligence.

What the report found

PISA, conducted by the OECD every three years, measures fifteen-year-olds' skills in reading, mathematics and science. The 2025 edition showed that average student performance in OECD countries hit record lows in both math and reading. The steepest declines were among students from wealthier families, which the report describes as a reversal of the previous trend, in which children from poorer households recorded the biggest drops.

Among EU countries, Spain, Croatia, Luxembourg, Malta, Greece, Romania, Cyprus and Bulgaria fell below the OECD average. Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic scored above it. The top of the global ranking is led by China, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

AI and hollowed-out skills

Commenting on the results, Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's director for education and skills and the creator of the PISA program, warned that artificial intelligence is hollowing out key skills in young people. He pointed specifically to the competencies that matter most in the AI era: assessing the credibility of information, connecting threads from different sources, and thinking critically about what one reads.

The most worrying decline is in the skills that matter most in the age of AI: evaluating information, connecting threads from multiple sources, and thinking critically about what we read. - Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills

PISA data shows a clear pattern: the highest-performing students tend to be those who use AI tools less often when doing schoolwork. The report stresses that the problem is not the use of technology itself, but replacing independent reasoning with it, particularly when it comes to distinguishing facts from opinions and handling ambiguity in text.

One third of Europeans functionally illiterate

Maciej Jakubowski, director of Poland's Educational Research Institute (Instytut Badań Edukacyjnych, IBE), told Euronews that about one third of young Europeans score below PISA level 2, which in practice amounts to functional illiteracy. He cautioned, however, that a causal link between social media and declining reading skills has not yet been established. French education minister Édouard Geffray pointed to the scale of the phone-related problem: students who spend more than three hours a day on their phone during school lose the equivalent of nearly two years of schooling.

We cannot say in a causal way that such a link exists, but it is the first hypothesis. - Maciej Jakubowski, director of the Educational Research Institute (IBE)

The Netherlands, where 4 in 10 children are at risk of finishing school with low reading skills, has pledged to reverse the trend within three years. Other EU countries where scores fell the most have announced similar remedial programs.

Poland as a green island

Against the backdrop of the global crisis, Poland performs steadily. Polish fifteen-year-olds scored 495 points in science, 484 in math and 482 in reading, clearly above the EU and OECD averages. Only Estonia and Finland scored higher in science, only Estonia scored higher in math, and only Estonia and Ireland scored higher in reading. The results are close to the 2022 edition, with no statistically significant differences.

The global education crisis is a fact. Compared to Europe, we are a green island. - Barbara Nowacka, Poland's Minister of National Education

IBE director Tomasz Gajderowicz, however, pointed to a paradox: while Polish fifteen-year-olds reason at the level of Europe's top performers, they are also among the least satisfied with life among the countries surveyed. In Poland, 63 percent of students believe school poorly prepared them for adulthood, and 38 percent see it as a waste of time, compared to EU averages of 52 and 26 percent respectively. At the same time, 55 percent of Polish fifteen-year-olds use AI chatbots weekly for schoolwork, more than the EU and OECD average.

The OECD report calls on education systems to teach young people to interpret and verify AI-generated information rather than passively accepting ready-made answers. The next PISA study will take place in three years, and policymakers in several EU countries have already announced programs to limit phone use in classrooms and add digital skills to the core curriculum.