There was a sense of nervousness within the Department of Education on Monday in advance of the publication of the Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) rankings, an international report on the performance of teenagers in maths, reading and science.
A press briefing was called hastily, and the department led with the positive news that Ireland is still among the top players in Europe – in fact, in reading, Ireland has the highest score in the EU.
The Minister was out to congratulate students and thank teachers, parents and school communities for their “dedication and commitment”.
The Educational Research Centre, the research arm of the department, led with the line that Irish students outperformed their counterparts in most other participating countries, and that any declines seen here were also observed at Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and EU level.
This is true, and there certainly is good news in this report showing Ireland has one of the most successful education systems in the world.
But focusing on that would be to ignore one key fact.
Teenagers, in Ireland and globally, are much worse at reading and maths than they were 10 years ago.
Irish teenagers getting weaker at maths and reading, new international research shows
The OECD itself was far more dreary in its analysis of the global findings than the department was here, particularly regarding falling reading scores.
It variously described this decline as “gloomy”, “troubling”, “sobering” and “pervasive”.
It found the reduced capacity of students to read carefully and with sustained attention was playing a leading role in this decline.
Students were more likely to read in haste, rushing through blocks of text to give quick but incorrect answers.
They struggled more than ever before with reading longer texts, which required higher-order cognitive skills and more focus over longer periods.
“We cannot say for sure, but skimming social media feeds and rapidly processing information may be contributing to worsening ability and motivation to engage with complex texts and data,” the OECD said.
It also pointed to school closures over the Covid-19 period as another possible explanation for the reduced reading abilities, though because the decline started before the pandemic, this cannot be the only reason.
Summing it up, the OECD said the declining trends in reading were “pervasive” and “primarily reflect a decline in focus and attention”.
Irish teenagers getting weaker at maths and reading, new international research shows
It called on education systems globally to re-engage young people with reading – because it is more important now than ever.
“In an era of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence, the ability to read critically, assess the credibility of information, understand nuance and make informed judgments is likely to become even more valuable,” the OECD said.
But what do the Pisa results tell us about the preparedness of students in Ireland for an AI-dominated future?
We know that reading scores have fallen here, as they have in most other OECD countries – but still Ireland remains high on the leader boards.
It is also clear that the Irish system has been trying to limit the use of digital devices in schools for purely leisure activities.
The data shows 78 per cent of Irish students attended a school with some sort of smartphone ban – that is up from 56 per cent in 2022 and is significantly higher than the OECD average of 46 per cent in 2025.
Students in Ireland are also using AI for schoolwork a lot less than their peers in other countries.
In Ireland, some 26 per cent of students reported using AI chatbots to help them learn at least once a week, while the OECD average was 46 per cent.
None of this should encourage complacency on behalf of policymakers here, though.
Students must be guided through the responsible use of AI in a classroom setting to use it comfortably later in life.
We must also foster a love of reading for leisure in them in early years to combat the reduced capacity for focus on longer-form comprehension.
The Pisa results confirm we have a world-class education system – but the drop-off in reading and maths scores are not a blip in the data and should not be ignored.