The Educator September 23, 2026 by Matthew Sellers

The world's most closely watched school report card has just been handed in, and the results are grim reading well beyond the countries that sat it. On 8 September, the OECD published PISA 2025, the triennial test of how well 15-year-olds in 91 countries can apply what they've learned in reading, maths and science to real-world problems. More than 760,000 students sat it. Average performance across OECD member countries has now sunk to the lowest levels ever recorded in all three subjects.

For readers running Australian schools, the temptation is to feel a little smug. We're not France. We're not Germany. Australian students remain above the OECD average across the board. But look past the ranking table and the same forces dragging down some of Europe's most admired systems, particularly around reading, equity and staffing, show up in our own results too.

Read here