PISA Results Show Steep Decline in Israeli Student Achievement
Translated & summarized from Now 14 by baba
The PISA 2025 results show a sharp decline in Israeli students' academic performance across reading, math, and science, placing the country in the bottom quartile among OECD nations. Significant numbers of students lack basic proficiency, and the strongest academic performers have diminished, while the state education system experienced the most severe setbacks.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Israeli students show significant decline in PISA 2025 scores.
- Israel ranks in the bottom quartile among OECD countries.
- Nearly half of students lack basic math proficiency.
- Top performers have drastically decreased.
- State education system and high achievers saw the largest drops.
- Digital literacy skills are significantly below OECD average.
The latest PISA 2025 results reveal a significant drop in academic performance for Israeli students, with scores in reading, math, and science falling considerably compared to previous years and international averages. While Israel's relative standing in reading and science returned to 2018 levels, and math saw only a one-place decline, the overall scores represent a regression to 2006 and 2009 levels. This decline places Israel in the bottom quartile among OECD countries, ranking 31st in reading and 33rd in both math and science.
A concerning finding is that nearly half of Israeli students (46%) do not reach the basic proficiency level in mathematics, compared to the OECD average of 35%. Similarly, 41% fall below the basic reading threshold and 40% in science, both significantly higher than OECD averages. The number of high-achieving students has also plummeted, with top performers dropping from over 10% in reading in 2022 to 4.7% in 2025.
The most significant decline was observed in the state education system, particularly among students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, who experienced sharp drops in scores. This has led to a 'negative narrowing' of educational gaps, where stronger populations weakened considerably rather than weaker populations improving. In contrast, girls in the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and State-Religious sectors showed relative stability, with Haredi girls even surpassing their State school counterparts in reading.
Israel also performed poorly in the new "Learning in a Digital World" assessment, ranking 37th out of 38 OECD countries. Israeli students spend an average of 7 hours daily on screens, with a lower proportion dedicated to learning compared to the OECD average. The report also highlights a crisis in teaching quality, with a high percentage of school principals reporting that teaching is hampered by unqualified or inadequately trained teachers.
Despite the challenging context of ongoing conflict during the testing period (March-April 2025), the report attributes the severe decline not solely to the war, noting the unprecedented scale of the drop compared to other nations. These results follow similar downward trends observed in previous international studies like TIMSS 2023 and PIRLS 2021, indicating a systematic erosion of academic gains made over the past two decades.
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