Australian students record worst-ever reading and maths results in international PISA testBy national education and parenting reporter Conor Duffy and the Specialist Reporting Team’s Miwa Blumer

Posted Tue 8 Sep 2026 at 5:30pmTue 8 Sep 2026 at 5:30pmTue 8 Sep 2026 at 5:30pm

In short:

Australia’s reading and maths results in a major international high school test have continued a 20-year decline.

Australian 15-year-olds have sat the Programme for International Student Assessment exams every three years since 2000.

Australia’s test scores have been in decline for two decades, but other OECD countries are declining faster.

Australian high school students’ scores in maths and reading have hit their lowest point on record, according to a major international test.

While the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exams showed a slight improvement in science results since the last test in 2022, Australia’s long-term learning decline continued overall.

The 2025 test results released today showed Australia continued to perform above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average, with Australian students ranking 10th in science and reading, and 16th in mathematics among the 91 countries and economies that sat the test.

“What the data shows us is that we see long-term declines in reading and in mathematics. We were able to stabilise our scores in science,” Jonas Berling from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), which administers the test, said.

According to the OECD, 20 points on a test score is roughly equivalent to one year of learning for the average student.

Those declines mean science students today are almost one year of learning behind students who sat the exam in 2006.

In reading, students last year were roughly two years behind where they were in 2000. In mathematics, they were a little over two years behind the 2003 results.

“What PISA shows is that we see a decline in especially reading and mathematics where we haven’t caught up with the levels from 10 or 20 years ago, when Pisa started,” Mr Berling said.


“While we see some declines in the long run, we’re still a very strong country,”

Mr Berling said.

Blaise Joseph from the Centre for Independent Studies think tank said the long-term picture was “troubling”.

“We also have fewer high performers and more low performers across all three subjects,” Mr Joseph said.

Australian students reported improved discipline in classrooms compared to earlier findings, but remained among the lowest countries in the world on that measure, ranking 69th out of 80.

The disciplinary climate is measured by surveying science students, and 21 per cent reported they could not work well in most or all lessons compared to the OECD average of 19 per cent.

Forty-one per cent of Australian students reported there was noise and disorder in their classrooms compared to the OECD average of 31 per cent, echoing a report released last week that found one-third of lesson time was being lost to misbehaviour.

“Disruption remains a challenge in our Australian classrooms,” Mr Burling said.

“I think it’s important that we see disruption in the larger context of the Australian system and see what resources are needed in the classroom to improve on this.”

Mr Joseph blamed the high rates of misbehaviour for Australia’s lack of learning growth.

“Students cannot learn effectively when classrooms are regularly disrupted. Schools need clear expectations, explicitly taught routines and consistent approaches to behaviour so teachers can teach and students can learn,” he said.

Australian students also skipped school at almost twice the OECD average, with 44 per cent of students reporting skipping a day of school in the two weeks before testing compared to the OECD average of 24 per cent.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the results showed the importance of reforms the government introduced to classroom teaching practice and increased public school funding.

He said the United Kingdom introduced similar reforms 20 years ago, and in this year’s PISA testing, rose three places in reading, four places in maths and seven places in science.

“This shows why the reforms we are rolling out are so important. The UK results are impressive. It’s also hard-earned. It’s something almost 20 years in the making,” Mr Clare said.

“In Australian schools that have been doing this for a while, we can see the same thing that has happened in the UK. But we have to keep going and roll it out everywhere.”

Mr Clare said too much screen time might be a problem in Australian schools.

“This doesn’t mean there is no place for tech in schools. Students need to learn digital skills. That includes how to use, and how not to use AI,” Mr Clare said.

“But it does point to the need to wind back the amount of screen time in schools.“

Australian students perform strongest in new domain

One big positive from the latest results was Australia’s performance in the “learning in the digital world” category, designed to measure a student’s ability to learn in technology-rich environments.

Australian students achieved a mean score of 532 points compared to the OECD average of 500 points, with 75 per cent of Australian students reaching the national proficient standard.

James Casey, a Year 10 student at Gymea Technology High School, a public school in Sydney’s outer south, took the test last year.

“This was more simply a test of just pure logic and reason and ability to think,” James said.

School principal Katherine Edwards said the learning in the digital world results would help equip students for the jobs of the future.

She said the school had a strong focus on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

“It’s an area that our students, as they’re moving into the workforce, need more and more, and the jobs that they’re moving into are relying on those STEM skills and are increasingly needing them,” Ms Edwards said.