Global tests show Australian kids struggling in maths, reading as scores hit lowest level in 25 years

Australian 15-year-olds’ skills in reading and maths have plunged to their worst level since international tests began, while science scores have stagnated.

The latest global report card from the Program for International Student Assessment reveals Australian students’ average scores in reading and maths fell to their lowest level in 25 years.

Science remained stable, with the average score from 2025 in line with those achieved in the 2022 and 2018 testing rounds.

When compared with the rest of the world, Australia was above the OECD average in all three domains, finishing 10th in science, 11th in reading and 17th in maths.

But when compared with Australian teens from a decade ago, the proportion of low-performers increased by seven percentage points in maths and five percentage points in reading. Science did not change significantly.

In science, Australia was 88 points behind the top-performing Chinese provinces of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang — equivalent to around four years of schooling.

Australian students were two school years of learning below Singapore in reading and as much as six years behind the four Chinese provinces in maths.

And a significant number failed to demonstrate more than basic skills, with just 49 per cent achieving the “national proficient standard” benchmark in maths, 55 per cent in reading and 60 per cent in science.

The world’s biggest assessment of student learning, PISA is held every three years to assess how well 15-year-olds can apply the knowledge they’ve learnt in school to real-life problems.

While Asian countries dominated the rankings, Estonia and the United Kingdom were also among the top 10 across all subjects.

Estonia and countries such as Japan and Ireland, which had achieved similar results to Australia in previous years, have now streaked ahead.

More than 14,600 Australian students from 766 schools sat the tests last year, including 1900 mostly Year 10s from 100 WA schools. They joined more than 760,000 students from 91 countries.

The latest round of testing had a particular focus on science, with students required to critically interpret data and evidence and evaluate scientific information to make decisions.

For the first time, students were also assessed on their computer skills. Australian students ranked ninth for computational problem solving, with more than three-quarters attaining the proficiency benchmark.

Concerningly, long-term results have declined across the world in the past 10 years, particularly in reading and maths, with average achievement scores for Australia and for the OECD now lower than in any previous PISA cycle.

According to the OECD, one in five 15-year-old students are now estimated to be low-performers across all three subjects — up from 16 per cent in 2022.

“These students lack the foundational skills needed to succeed in further education, employment and everyday life,” OECD secretary-general and former Australian politician Mathias Cormann wrote in his preface to the PISA report.

“In reading, increased digitalisation, longer screen time and falling rates of reading for enjoyment have coincided with weaker literacy outcomes.

“Countries with the largest declines in reading also tended to record the largest drops in mathematics and science.”

Lisa De Bortoli, from the Australian Council for Educational Research which designed and implemented the global tests, said Australia had performed comparatively well against their peers on the world stage in 2025, ranking above dozens of countries.

“Over the long term, we are definitely declining, more so with with maths and reading than in science,” she said.

“Across the three domains, reading, maths and science, we have fewer high-performers and also more low-performers.

“The OECD average is also declining as well. So this decline is not isolated only to Australia, but to most of the other OECD countries.”

Ms De Bortoli noted the four Chinese regions with the highest scores in science and maths had students from highly-advantaged backgrounds.

“And we do know that socio-economic background probably has one of the largest influences on performance,” she said.

In good news for WA, it was one of the stronger jurisdictions, returning similar results to NSW and Victoria.

”Over the longer term, while most states and territories did decline over a long period of time, WA actually showed the largest decline of any jurisdiction when it comes to maths,” Ms De Bortoli said. “So that is something that is a concern.”

The data also showed that Australian girls continued to outperform boys in reading, boys did better in maths and there was no difference between the genders in science.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said in contrast to Australia, which moved up just one place in reading, the United Kingdom had jumped three places in reading, four places in maths and seven in science.

Mr Clare said the UK results showed what was possible and why reforms such as numeracy and phonics checks being rolled out in Australian schools were important.

“The UK results are impressive — it’s also hard earned,” he said. “It’s something almost 20 years in the making.”

“In Australian schools that have been doing this for a while we can see the same thing that has happened in the UK. But we have to keep going and roll it out everywhere.”

Mr Clare said the PISA results also showed that students who frequently used screens scored lower than those who didn’t use them a lot.

“This doesn’t mean there’s no place for tech in schools,” he added. “Students need to learn digital skills. That includes how to use, and how not to use, AI.

“But it does point to the need to wind back the amount of screen time in schools.”