Student performance in reading and mathematics has fallen to its lowest recorded level since the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) began measuring educational outcomes in 2000, according to the 2025 edition of the study, released on 8 September. The results, drawn from approximately 760,000 fifteen-year-olds across 91 countries and territories, show that average reading scores across OECD member states dropped by 28 points between 2015 and 2025 — the equivalent of roughly one and a half years of learning — while mathematics scores fell by 22 points. Science results held up relatively better, declining only marginally. The OECD, the Paris-based club of mostly wealthy nations that administers the test, describes the current moment as the worst performance level the study has ever recorded.

The decline is widespread but uneven. In France, students posted their lowest-ever scores in all three subjects, with reading falling 18 points and mathematics 16 points since the last assessment in 2022. French education minister Édouard Geffray called the results