Australia's school system has recorded its worst-ever results in mathematics and reading, according to the latest edition of the world's most comprehensive student performance study — a finding that has reignited debate about whether the country is targeting the right reforms to turn things around.
The 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), released this week, tested 15-year-olds across 91 OECD countries and economies, measuring performance in mathematics, reading, science and — for the first time — computational problem-solving. Australia's scores in maths and reading sank to their lowest levels since PISA testing began in 2000, continuing a two-decade downward trend.
Australia's Rankings: Worse at Home, Stronger Globally Than It Appears
Despite the domestic slide, Australia's international standing remained relatively solid. The country moved up one place in reading to 11th, held steady at 17th in mathematics, and dropped one spot to 11th in science. In the newly introduced computational problem-solving category, Australia ranked 8th in the world — and across all four measures, Australian scores sat well above the OECD average.
Finnish education expert and University of Melbourne professor Pasi Sahlberg argued that the domestic headlines were missing crucial context. He pointed out that virtually every OECD nation is experiencing its own all-time lows across the same measures, with very few countries managing any improvement at all in the 2025 results.
"The headline is that we have all-time-low results. I think it's absolutely astonishing that our mainstream media are saying this. The truth is every country in the OECD is showing all-time-low results in everything. Very few countries were able to improve their results in 2025," Sahlberg said.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the standout performers were several Chinese regions, Singapore, Taiwan, Macao and Japan, which dominated the top five spots across mathematics, reading, science and computational problem-solving. While Singapore and Japan saw slight score decreases compared with the previous PISA cycle, Taiwan, China and Macao recorded modest gains — making them notable outliers in an otherwise broadly declining global picture.
Federal Government Points to England's Model as the Path Forward
In response to the PISA results, federal Education Minister Jason Clare announced a package of reforms centred on reading, mathematics and science. Clare highlighted England's performance as a blueprint worth following — the country jumped three places in reading to break into the top 10, rose four places in mathematics to reach 10th, and climbed seven places in science to rank 8th globally.
The proposed reforms include a stronger emphasis on phonics — a method of teaching reading and writing based on the sounds of spoken language — along with changes to the mathematics curriculum and new rules around screen time in classrooms.
"The UK results are impressive. It's also hard-earned. It's something almost 20 years in the making," Clare said.
Clare noted that Australian schools already applying methods aligned with England's approach have begun showing signs of improvement, and he is now pushing for a broader national rollout of those practices.
Experts Warn Rankings Don't Tell the Full Story
Sahlberg pushed back on the government's approach, arguing that chasing ranking improvements was the wrong priority. He said the PISA data reveals something more troubling beneath the surface: a significant deterioration in how young people actually experience learning at school, alongside a declining culture of engagement with education outside the classroom.
"We need to look beyond these rankings, because this data is also showing us a very alarming situation in Australia and many other countries when it comes to how young people experience learning in school," he said.
He noted that the problems affecting children's learning do not start and end at the school gate. Parental engagement, he said, is falling — a trend reflected in the PISA data itself. Only 75 per cent of Australian students reported that a parent or guardian asked them at least once a week what they had done at school — down from 81 per cent in the 2022 PISA survey.
Sahlberg described this as a shared crisis across English-speaking nations, saying England, Canada and the United States are all caught in the same downward spiral when it comes to a positive reading culture and family engagement with schooling.
What the Data Is Really Revealing
The 2025 PISA report also examined classroom disruption, gender divides and the socio-economic gap between high and low-income students — all of which were flagged as ongoing concerns for Australia. Heightened classroom disruption in particular was identified as a factor weighing on student outcomes.
The tension at the heart of the debate is whether Australia should be laser-focused on targeted curriculum reforms — as the federal government is pursuing — or whether it needs a broader rethink of the conditions in which children learn, both inside schools and at home.
Sahlberg's position is clear: raw scores and rankings offer only a partial picture, and any meaningful improvement will require attention to the wider social and cultural environment surrounding education — not just what happens in the classroom.
