German and Belgian students post sharp PISA declines
German 15-year-old students recorded their lowest results since the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment began 25 years ago, with about one in three students failing to reach basic proficiency in reading and mathematics, data released Tuesday showed.
Germany scored 486 points in science, 465 in reading and 464 in mathematics in the 2025 assessment. Reading and mathematics results fell from 2022, while science performance remained broadly unchanged.
About one in four German students failed to demonstrate basic science skills.
“What we are seeing today is, without any doubt, an alarming finding,” Education Minister Karin Prien said in Berlin.
Prien said too many young people were failing to acquire basic competencies needed for their future education and careers, pointing to social media, artificial intelligence and socioeconomic disadvantage among the challenges facing students.
Germany remains near OECD average
The PISA assessment measures whether 15-year-olds can apply knowledge to everyday tasks, including understanding longer texts, comparing prices and interpreting charts.
About 6,700 students from around 250 German schools took part in the 2025 testing, which involved approximately 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies.
Despite Germany’s decline, its scores remained close to the OECD average of 482 points in science, 461 in reading and 463 in mathematics.
Fourteen OECD countries, including Estonia, Canada, Switzerland and Austria, recorded higher overall results. France and the Netherlands posted results close to Germany.
Belgium sees continuing decline
Belgian students are also struggling with basic skills, with the latest PISA results showing continued declines in reading, mathematics and science.
The deterioration has been particularly pronounced in Flanders, where roughly one in four students now fails to reach basic proficiency in mathematics.
In the region, 29.4% of students failed to reach the basic level in reading comprehension, while 25.6% fell below the threshold in mathematics and 22.6% in science.
The figures mark a significant reversal from earlier results. Until 2013, Flanders had more top-performing mathematics students than low-performing ones.
Socioeconomic gap remains wide
The Belgian results also highlighted a substantial divide between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
In Flanders, about one in three students from disadvantaged backgrounds was classified as a low achiever, compared with about one in 10 students from more privileged backgrounds.
Students in Belgium’s French-speaking community performed around the OECD average in reading, mathematics and science, although their results remained considerably below those of students in Flanders.
Both language communities have experienced declining performance over the past 15 years.
Flanders remains among the 20 highest-performing education systems, while the French-speaking community ranks roughly 10 places lower.
Education systems face growing pressure
The latest PISA results point to persistent challenges across parts of Europe, with Germany and Belgium reporting declines in basic academic skills and significant disparities linked to students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.
The findings are likely to intensify debate over education policy, digital technology, social inequality and efforts to ensure that students acquire essential skills before leaving compulsory education.
Source:AA
