OECD Official Urges Israeli Education Minister to Own Poor PISA Results

Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's director for education and skills, has stated he advised Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch to stand behind the country's "embarrassing" results on the latest PISA international student assessment. Schleicher explained to Kisch that since the full report would be publicly available, it would be best to own the findings.

Kisch had contacted Schleicher following the release of the historically low scores, attempting to mitigate the damage. The minister subsequently held a press briefing where he presented a message from Schleicher suggesting that given the ongoing war, the results were not entirely surprising and could have been worse. Kisch also suggested that Israel's National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (RAMA) had a political agenda to present the students negatively.

In a video address, Kisch downplayed the severity of the results, emphasizing the resilience of Israeli students and educators during wartime. He argued that the tests, conducted in March 2025 amidst the conflict, showed Israel maintained its relative standing compared to 2018, despite significant disruptions like school closures, student evacuations, and parental reserve duty. Schleicher reportedly expressed surprise that Israel's position hadn't fallen further.

However, critics, including Knesset members Naama Lazimi and Merav Cohen, have sharply criticized Kisch's handling of the situation and the education system's performance. They attribute the decline to years of neglect, a severe shortage of qualified teachers, and the minister's focus on politics rather than educational reform. The "Manor Center" think tank described the PISA results as the "greatest earthquake" in Israeli education history, a failure of government policy rather than the students themselves, exacerbated by a lack of preparedness for wartime conditions and a reliance on unqualified instructors.