This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The PISA study regularly assesses 15-year-olds' ability to understand and solve real-life problems in reading, mathematics and science toward the end of their compulsory education. It demonstrates the extent to which young people are prepared for the demands of a knowledge-based society and can participate in social life on their own terms.
The latest study, coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and led in Germany by the Centre for International Student Assessment (ZIB) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), was conducted in 2025. Each PISA study takes a closer look at a specific subject area; this time, the focus is on the natural sciences. Students achieved lower scores in science (486 points), reading (465 points) and mathematics (464 points) than in the previous PISA study in 2022.
The results are worse across all areas than in the first PISA study 25 years ago. Following the "PISA shock" at that time, Germany had initially managed to improve and maintain a good level of performance. For about 10 years, however, performance has been steadily declining.
"The current results show that the findings of the most recent studies were not a short-term phenomenon, but rather that we are seeing a clear downward trend," says Samuel Greiff, an education researcher at TUM and head of the German component of the PISA study. In the natural sciences, Germany is no longer above the OECD average for the first time since 2006. In mathematics and reading, the results are also at the OECD average, as was the case in the 2022 PISA study.
While a downward trend has also been evident in other OECD countries across past PISA studies, the decline in Germany is particularly pronounced. Students in the Chinese regions of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang achieved the best results in science and mathematics (597 and 612 points, respectively). In reading, 15-year-olds in Singapore demonstrated the highest skills (535 points).
But students in several OECD countries with economic and social conditions comparable to Germany's also perform significantly better than their peers in Germany. This is particularly true for Estonia, Canada, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, this PISA study examined how well 15-year-olds can use digital tools to structure and solve complex problems.
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