In the PISA 2025 assessment published on 8 September 2026, Romania placed second to last in the EU across math, reading, and science, ranking ahead of only Bulgaria.
Among Romanian 15-year-olds, 52% failed to reach basic Level 2 competency in mathematics and 48% in reading, reflecting a 16-point drop in reading compared to 2022.
President Nicușor Dan pointed to deep socio-economic divides and urged authorities to allocate funds for early intervention and standardized assessments.
European Commission Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu announced an EU Education Package scheduled for November 2026 to help member states address foundational skill gaps.
The OECD released its PISA 2025 evaluation on 8 September 2026, assessing approximately 760,000 fifteen-year-old students across 91 countries. Romania recorded its lowest scores in two decades, placing penultimately among European Union member states across all three core testing domains, ahead only of Bulgaria. In mathematics, 52% of Romanian students failed to reach Level 2, the OECD threshold for basic competency, worsening from 49% in 2022. Reading scores fell by 16 points, leaving 48% of students below the minimum threshold, compared to 42% in the previous assessment cycle. In science, 46% of Romanian participants did not attain basic competency, while nearly 60% fell below the baseline in digital problem-solving tasks.
Global rankings placed Singapore and China at the top, followed by Estonia, Japan, and South Korea. Within the European continent, non-EU nations including Montenegro and Albania outperformed Romania. In mathematics, Romania earned 419 points, tying with Mongolia, while scoring 425 points in science, one point ahead of Mongolia's 424 points. In reading, Romanian pupils achieved 413 points compared to 374 points for Mongolia.
Data from the article text
President Nicușor Dan, a two-time International Mathematical Olympiad gold medalist in 1987 and 1988, addressed the findings from Bucharest. Dan stated that academic achievement in Romania remains heavily determined by family income and geographic location rather than individual potential. He called on political parties and the government to secure substantial budgetary allocations to identify at-risk students early, establish data-driven evaluation tools, reduce school dropout rates, and regulate classroom technology.
“The chance of a child in Romania having good school results depends to an unacceptably large extent on the family they come from and the place where they study.”
Dan argued that isolated high-performing schools cannot substitute for a functional nationwide framework. He urged state institutions to transition existing pockets of educational excellence into an equitable system capable of supporting national economic competitiveness and defense.
Parent representatives attributed the decline to governance failures rather than pupil capability. National Federation of Parents President Cătălin Viorel Nan noted that Romanian scores trail OECD averages across all tested disciplines, renewing calls for public education funding to reach 6% of gross domestic product. Nan argued that schools continue to operate on an industrial-era curriculum unchanged since the 1900s, leaving pupils unable to apply knowledge to everyday scenarios such as calculating commercial discounts or understanding promotional advertisements.
“This is more the failure of the adults who built, managed, and defended this system. It is not the failure of the children.”
Data from the article text
Dismissed Minister of Education and Research Mihai Dimian acknowledged that curricula must be modernized to prepare students for evolving labor markets. At the European level, European Commission Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu pointed out that basic competency deficits affect youth across multiple member states.
“Too many young Europeans have difficulties with basic skills such as reading, mathematics or science. It is a signal that we must take very seriously.”
Mînzatu announced that the European Commission will present an Education Package in November 2026 to assist national governments with skill acquisition programs.
Pollar is free and carries no ads in the text. Its members keep it going.
Support PollarHealth & Education · Bucharest and Brussels
The OECD PISA 2025 assessment places Romania penultimately in the European Union, with 52% of 15-year-olds failing basic math and 48% failing reading.
AI text based on reports by HotNews.ro, Ziare.com, Stirile ProTV and other publishers. Published .