Germany's schoolchildren continue to slide down the international rankings: the results achieved by 15-year-olds in mathematics, reading and science were "the lowest ever measured", according to the PISA study published on Tuesday by the OECD in Paris. With this outcome, Germany sits close to the average of all roughly 90 countries tested in each of the three areas. Singapore and four Chinese regions once again lead the international education comparison.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tests the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old pupils in its member states and partner countries at regular intervals and publishes the findings in what is known as the PISA study. The test results are meaningful indicators of the long-term success of economies and societies, the authors emphasise.
In Germany, average results in 2025 in mathematics and reading were lower than in the previous PISA test in 2022. In science they were roughly unchanged. Taken across the decade as a whole, this reinforces a "negative trend" in Germany, the study said. Only just under 70 percent of German pupils reached the minimum standard defined by the OECD in reading: the ability to understand the main message of a medium-length text. In China, 93 percent reached this level.
Across the OECD average, the decline in reading recorded in many countries corresponds to roughly a full school year. The authors describe the finding as "worrying", since the age of artificial intelligence (AI) makes it all the more important to evaluate information and critically question what has been read.
In every participating country, the share of "hasty readers", those who rush through texts and then give incorrect answers, almost doubled between 2018 and 2025. The study's authors cite several factors behind the general fall in reading ability, among them longer screen time and the fact that less time is spent reading for pleasure.
It can also be observed that declining reading skills go hand in hand with weakening abilities in the other areas: "Countries with the largest declines in reading performance generally also record the steepest drops in mathematics and science," the study states.
Germany, with its multi-track school system, is in the authors' view among the countries in which the type of school attended further accentuates differences in performance. This could deepen inequalities, and there is a risk that while "islands of excellence" may exist, the overall quality of education suffers.
Between 2015 and 2025, the performance gap in science between socially privileged and socially disadvantaged pupils in Germany widened, the study continues. While the results of the former remained roughly stable, those of socially disadvantaged pupils fell away. As a result, 19 percent of the differences in science performance in Germany can be explained by social background.
Across the OECD, the figure is just 12 percent. Disenchantment with school is also more pronounced in Germany than the average: one third of the 15-year-olds surveyed consider school a "waste of time", compared with 24 percent across the OECD, just under a quarter.
Around 6,700 pupils aged 15 took part in the PISA test organised in 2025 in Germany. In total, more than 760,000 young people from 91 countries and economies were involved. The PISA study has so far been produced every three years; in future it will be carried out every four years.
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