«Մեդիան հանուն կրթության» ՀԿ–ն հետևում է էթիկական լրագրության կանոններին։
Բողոքների դեպքում դիմել
Դիտորդ մարմին։
Photo: OECD official website
Following the publication of the PISA 2025 results in Sweden, the focus of the discussion has been not on the fact that the country’s students continue to perform close to the OECD average, but on the decline in their results.
The performance of 15-year-old students in mathematics and reading has deteriorated, while there has been no significant change in science. In all three domains, the results are now among the lowest recorded in Sweden’s history of participation in PISA.
The Swedish government has described the results as “very concerning”.
“These results show how important the direction of the education policy chosen by the government is. In schools, we are focusing on foundational knowledge, with more books and fewer screens in classrooms,” said Sweden’s Minister for Education and Integration, Simona Mohamsson.
A total of 6,688 students from 206 schools in Sweden participated in PISA 2025. According to the PISA 2025 data, 74% of students in Sweden reached at least the baseline level in science, 69% in reading and 66% in mathematics. These figures are close to the OECD averages.
However, the government’s response does not use these figures to downplay the decline in results. Sweden’s concern is not its position in the international ranking, but the deterioration in the country’s performance compared with previous years. The government also notes that the decline is not unique to Sweden, as results have deteriorated in many countries. After progress between 2012 and 2018, the trend has reversed, and PISA 2025 results in all three domains are significantly lower than in 2018 — by 13 percentage points in both mathematics and reading, and by 4 percentage points in science.
From poor results to searching for causes
The discussion around PISA results in Sweden did not begin with the 2025 assessment.
PISA 2022 had already shown a decline in mathematics and reading. At the time, the Swedish government spoke of a “historic decline in knowledge”, while the Minister for Education described the situation as a crisis in reading and mathematics.
However, the response did not stop at acknowledging the problem.
In 2024, the Swedish government commissioned the OECD to conduct an additional study into the causes of the decline in Sweden’s PISA results — analyzing long-term trends, comparing Sweden’s developments with those of other countries, and examining factors that could have affected student performance.
In other words, poor results were followed not only by an assessment, but also by a question: why?
PISA 2025 shows that the decline has not yet been reversed. The government is now also linking the results to education reforms that are already underway.
Millions of books have been purchased for schools, the role of school libraries is being strengthened, the use of mobile phones is being restricted, and new curricula will place greater emphasis on foundational skills in reading, writing and numeracy.
These changes, however, have yet to demonstrate their impact.
PISA 2025 presents the problem that these measures are intended to address. The next assessments will provide an opportunity to determine whether the trend has actually been reversed.
Perhaps the most important aspect of Sweden’s experience is this sequence of steps. The value of an international assessment lies not only in seeing where a country stands among others. It also provides an opportunity to understand the direction in which a country’s education system is moving — and why.
And when the data show a decline, the most important function of research is not to confirm an already chosen policy, but to find out what is not working and what needs to change.
Teacher, MA
