As Students Turn To AI, Reading And Math Scores Continue To Fall: Survey | Education and Career News
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One in five 15-year-olds across OECD countries is now a low performer in all three core subjects — science, mathematics and reading — compared with 16% in 2022.
Reading performance had already been declining, while mathematics saw a particularly sharp fall after 2018. (AI Image)
Student performance in reading and mathematics has fallen to its lowest recorded level across OECD countries, with the latest PISA 2025 results showing a continuing decline in learning outcomes among 15-year-olds. The OECD released the findings on September 8, based on an assessment of around 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies.
The decline has been particularly pronounced in reading and mathematics. Average reading scores across OECD countries fell by 28 points between 2015 and 2025, equivalent to about one-and-a-half years of learning. Mathematics scores declined by 22 points over the same period, equivalent to slightly more than one year of learning, according to the OECD.
The deterioration is not solely a post-pandemic phenomenon. Reading performance had already been declining, while mathematics saw a particularly sharp fall after 2018. Between 2022 and 2025 alone, reading scores fell by about 14 points and mathematics scores by nine points across 35 OECD countries with comparable data. Science performance, meanwhile, remained broadly stable between 2022 and 2025.
The latest results also show a growing proportion of students struggling to reach basic proficiency. One in five 15-year-olds across OECD countries is now a low performer in all three core subjects — science, mathematics and reading — compared with 16% in 2022.
Reading has emerged as a particular concern. Between 2018 and 2025, average reading performance fell by 25 points across 35 OECD countries. The OECD estimates that 15-year-olds in 2025 were performing in reading at roughly the level expected of 14-year-olds seven years earlier. About three out of four participating countries and economies with comparable data recorded a significant decline in reading performance over this period.
The assessment also points to changes in how students read. The proportion of accurate and fluent readers fell by about seven percentage points between 2018 and 2025, while the share of “hasty readers” — students giving fast but incorrect responses — increased from almost 7% to 11%. The OECD says the pattern is consistent with declining attention, persistence or confidence when students encounter more difficult tasks.
AI For Schoolwork
The OECD found that the relationship between AI use and learning outcomes is complex. Students who used AI for specific schoolwork tasks such as summarising texts, drafting or research scored lower in science, on average, than students who did not use AI for those tasks. However, students who used AI for general purposes and had opportunities at school to develop AI-literacy skills tended to have slightly higher science scores.
The strongest-performing education systems included B-S-J-Z — Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang — and Singapore. B-S-J-Z recorded the highest average scores in science and mathematics, while Singapore topped the reading table.
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Ask News18The 2025 PISA results showed student performance in reading and mathematics falling to its lowest recorded level across OECD countries. Average reading scores fell by 28 points between 2015 and 2025, which is equivalent to about one-and-a-half years of learning. Over the same ten-year period, mathematics scores declined by 22 points, representing slightly more than one year of learning.
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September 14, 2026, 12:21 IST
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