Israeli students recorded one of the steepest declines in the OECD in reading, mathematics and science, according to results of the 2025 PISA international assessment released Tuesday, with scores falling far more sharply than the average across developed countries.
Compared with the previous assessment in 2022, Israel lost 38 points in reading comprehension, 25 in mathematics and 23 in science. The declines pushed Israel down the OECD rankings to 31st out of 38 countries in reading and 33rd in both mathematics and science.
PISA, the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, tests how well 15-year-olds can apply knowledge and skills to practical problems rather than simply measuring mastery of a school curriculum. Israel’s Education Ministry described the latest decline in the state education system as “particularly exceptional.”
Israeli students scored an average of 442 points in science, compared with an OECD average of 482; 433 in mathematics, against 463 across the organization; and 436 in reading, compared with 461. Among all 91 countries and economies participating in the 2025 assessment, Israel ranked 43rd in science, 43rd in mathematics and 37th in reading.
The scale of the deterioration stands out sharply against the broader OECD trend. Between 2022 and 2025, average OECD scores fell by three points in science, nine in mathematics and 14 in reading. Israel, by comparison, lost 23, 25 and 38 points respectively.
“The declines in Israel are among the sharpest recorded in OECD countries since the PISA study began in 2000, particularly in reading,” the Education Ministry said in its analysis. Israel was one of only four countries where reading scores fell by at least 35 points in a single testing cycle.
The ministry said Israel’s average across the three subjects was its lowest since it began participating in PISA, with results statistically similar to those recorded in mathematics and reading in 2006 and science in 2009.
Officials attributed much of the decline to the circumstances in which the assessment was conducted.
“PISA 2025 is first and foremost a snapshot of learning during wartime,” the ministry said. Students were tested after nearly a year and a half of war, during which communities were evacuated, pupils moved between schools, educational institutions repeatedly closed and reopened and teachers were called up for reserve duty. Intense fighting in Gaza had also resumed during the testing period, while schools in northern Israel were only beginning to return to normal operation.
The results come after a ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth investigation by Guy Asif found that ahead of the assessment, Education Ministry officials had operated a systematic mechanism aimed at influencing Israel’s results, including focused preparation of schools selected for testing and prohibited approaches to the national measurement authority. Despite those efforts, the scores fell sharply.
Nearly three in 10 below basic proficiency
The results also show a widening problem at the bottom of the achievement scale. Some 29% of Israeli students failed to reach basic proficiency in reading, mathematics and science simultaneously, compared with an OECD average of 19.7%. That amounts to nearly three in every 10 Israeli students struggling with fundamental skills across all three subjects.
At the other end, 8.8% of Israeli students reached the highest performance levels in at least one field, below the OECD average of 11.9%. The corresponding figure was 18% in Estonia, 27.1% in Japan and 42.3% in Singapore.
Israel also showed significant gender gaps. Girls scored 455 in reading, compared with 417 for boys, a 38-point difference. Boys’ reading scores have fallen by about 46 points since 2022, compared with an average decline of 17 points among boys across the OECD.
Girls also outperformed boys in science, scoring 449 compared with 435. In mathematics, boys scored 435 and girls 432, although the difference was not statistically significant.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch defended the results as evidence of the system’s ability to function under extraordinary circumstances.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch
(Photo: Oz Moalem)
“After nearly a year and a half of war, the evacuation of communities and profound disruption to the continuity of learning, these results are in my view evidence of the extraordinary resilience of the Israeli education system,” Kisch said.
He said Israel had maintained its relative position in reading and science compared with 2018 and had fallen only one place in mathematics. “We chose to carry out the assessment even during the war because we wanted a true picture,” he said.
Israel’s National Parents Association rejected the idea that the results should be explained away, saying pupils had lost the equivalent of almost an entire academic year of effective learning over the past six years due to COVID-19, lockdowns, repeated military operations and the war that began on October 7.
“If Israel is an outlier compared with OECD countries, it is time to stop looking for excuses and start looking for solutions,” the group said. “PISA tests are not the problem; they are the mirror. Instead of arguing with the mirror, it is time to deal with what it reflects.”