PISA 2025 results show German student scores dropping to lowest levels on record

Lowest competence levels since testing began

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the results of its 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), evaluating 760,000 15-year-old students across 91 participating countries and economies. In Germany, average scores across reading, mathematics, and science fell to their lowest levels since the country joined the testing cycle in 2000. German 15-year-olds attained an average of 486 points in science, 465 points in reading, and 464 points in mathematics, registering declines from the 2022 results of 492 points in science, 480 points in reading, and 475 points in mathematics. Samuel Greiff, the German PISA coordinator from the Centre for International Student Assessment at the Technical University of Munich, described the scale of learning loss over the past decade.

What teenagers can do today at 15, they could do at 13 in PISA 2015.

Widening competence gaps and falling top scores

The test results revealed significant increases in the share of students lacking baseline competencies. Roughly one third of German students failed to achieve minimum competence levels in reading and mathematics, while one quarter did not meet the baseline in science. Approximately one fifth of German teenagers lacked sufficient foundations across all three examined subjects. Compared to the 2015 assessment, the proportion of low-performing students in Germany increased by 17 percentage points in mathematics, 15 percentage points in reading, and 10 percentage points in science. Concurrently, the proportion of high-achieving German students contracted, dropping from 13% to 8% in reading and from 12% to 7% in mathematics, with only 3% reaching top competency tiers in all three subjects.

Digital media habits and artificial intelligence usage

For the first time, the PISA study incorporated detailed evaluations of digital learning tools and artificial intelligence. In Switzerland, where the proportion of students meeting overall baseline competencies fell from 73.3% in 2015 to 65.4% in 2025, more than 70% of 15-year-olds reported using artificial intelligence to summarize texts, conduct research, or generate drafts, and 85% used AI as a study aid. In Germany, student reading engagement declined noticeably, with nearly half of 15-year-olds stating that they only read when required and only one quarter listing reading as a favorite leisure activity. Andreas Schleicher of the OECD indicated that passive digital consumption has displaced creative application and long-form reading among students.

We are not dramatically left behind, but we do not live up to our own aspiration as an education nation. We do not play among the top countries.

Classroom shortages and international rankings

Domestic school environments in Germany faced significant operational strain, with 52% of 15-year-old students attending institutions where principals reported instruction was at least partly impaired by teacher shortages, compared to an OECD average of 39%. On the international leaderboard, four Chinese regions, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, ranked first in science with 597 points and led in mathematics. Singapore topped reading with 535 points. Within Europe, Estonia posted the highest results in science and mathematics, while Switzerland achieved second place in Europe for mathematics with 499 points and 470 points in reading. Fourteen OECD nations performed distinctly better than Germany in science, leaving German averages positioned near the OECD middle alongside France and the Netherlands.