PISA Rankings

The OECD has published its PISA league tables, comparing countries across the globe on their 15-year-olds’ attainment in maths, reading and science.

Released every three years, the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results show that England’s secondary school pupils have risen up the international rankings for their attainment in maths, reading and science.

In maths: English pupils’ average score stood at 492, significantly above the OECD average of 463. The national figure was the same as the one registered in 2022. Nine countries had significantly better scores.

In reading: the average score was 497, slightly above the figure recorded in 2022 (496). The OECD average stood at 461. Only three countries performed significantly better.

In science: The score was 516, up on 2022 levels (503) and significantly above the OECD average (482). This has halted a downward trend for science in this country which started in 2015. However,  the results show a gender gap has opened up in science, with boys outperforming girls.

England’s scores in the three subjects were significantly above those for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

England improved its position in the PISA rankings for each of the subjects. In maths, England moved up a place into tenth spot in the international league table. It was joint ninth for reading, up from 13th in 2022, and rose to eighth for science, having been 13th last time around.

The Department for Education is reported as having said “While England performs well compared to other countries, in reading and maths our children’s scores in PISA assessments haven’t improved in ten years. We don’t want to go up in the international league tables solely because other countries are declining.”