Study finds global drop in reading, math skills among teen students

By Dilara Hamit

There has been an unprecedented drop in high school age performance across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries compared to 2018, with teens' scores falling 10 points in reading and almost 15 score points in math, according to a new study.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, done by the OECD every three years, evaluates the knowledge and skills acquired by 15-year-old students. This international research program assesses the mathematical literacy, scientific literacy, and reading skills of students continuing formal education at age 15, allowing for comparisons between countries.

The PISA assessment, originally planned for 2021, was postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and took place in 2022.

This year’s results showed that the decline in mathematics performance is three times greater than any previous consecutive change. In fact, one in four 15-year-olds is now considered a low performer in math, reading, and science on average across OECD countries.

"This means they can struggle to do tasks such as use basic algorithms or interpret simple texts. This trend is more pronounced in 18 countries and economies, where more than 60% of 15-year-olds are falling behind," the report said.

It said this decline can only partially be attributed to COVID-19 since scores in reading and science had already been falling prior to the pandemic.

"For example, negative trends in maths performance were already apparent prior to 2018 in Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Slovak Republic," it said.

"The relationship between pandemic-induced school closures, often cited as the main cause of performance decline is not so direct. Across the OECD, around half of the students experienced closures for more than three months. However, PISA results show no clear difference in performance trends between education systems with limited school closures such as Iceland, Sweden and Chinese Taipei and systems that experienced longer school closures, such as Brazil, Ireland and Jamaica," the report added.

The report said that bucking the trend, Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Switzerland maintained or further raised already high levels of student performance, with scores ranging from 487 to 575 points (versus an OECD average of 472).