PISA – Pretty words instead of critical thinking

The latest results of the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) study have been published, and the media coverage is full of praise for the fact that Switzerland is said to be among the top performers. It’s astonishing! This claim is based on a comparison of Switzerland with European countries that performed even worse. In reality, however, the study demonstrates that the standard of education in Switzerland has fallen yet again, even by 2025. Has this perhaps become “normal”?
    The study assessed fifteen-year-olds: A total of 76,000 pupils from 91 OECD countries and economies took part. The assessment covered science, mathematics, reading literacy and, for the first time, “computer-based problem-solving”. In addition, the study examined motivation to learn, practical skills, adaptability and attitudes towards school, as well as the influence of gender, socio-economic status and migration background on learning outcomes.

The lowest OECD average ever recorded

The report states: “The PISA 2025 survey revealed the lowest OECD average ever recorded in science, reading literacy and mathematics. Reading competency has declined since peaking around 2012, whilst performance in science has fallen more slowly over the last ten years and performance in mathematics has fallen particularly sharply since 2018.”
    What should give us serious cause for concern is the decline in reading competences. The PISA organisers frame this shortfall primarily in terms of the demands of the economy: ‘In the area of reading competence, PISA observed, of all things, a decline in precisely those skills that are most important in the age of AI: evaluating information, making connections between different sources and thinking critically about what has been read. By contrast, the proportion of ‘skimmers’ – that is, pupils who hastily skim through texts and then give quick but incorrect answers – has almost doubled between 2018 and 2025.”

Destroy the foundations of direct democracy?

For Switzerland, this problem carries further implications. As a direct democracy, it must be able to rely on educated and alert young people who are capable of forming their own opinions on political issues. In the same way, the dual vocational training system can only continue to exist if companies can count on apprentices who have a good basic education. Swiss employers’ and trade associations were right to sound the alarm recently. They complained that six out of ten training supervisors identify serious shortcomings in young people’s writing and numeracy skills when they start their vocational apprenticeships. One in five of the companies surveyed is even considering training fewer apprentices in future or scaling back their provision. This paints a bleak picture for Switzerland’s successful dual vocational training model. Is our response simply to look the other way and gloss over the problem? Are our young people and our country no longer worth our time and attention?

China and others – better than Switzerland

Fortunately, the comparative figures cannot be removed from the OECD website!¹ The website reveals that:
    In science, maths and reading literacy, the Chinese regions of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as well as Singapore, achieved the best results. Furthermore, Estonia, Japan, Korea, Macau (China), Chinese Taipei and the United Kingdom were among the ten best-performing education systems in all three areas.
    In computer-based problem-solving, pupils in Macao (China), Singapore and, once again, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as well as Japan, achieved the highest scores with 572, 563, 560 and 557 points respectively. Pupils’ performance in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, Macau (China) and Iceland exceeded expectations based on their science performance by more than 30 points. It is encouraging to note that science results have improved in some OECD countries since 2022 – these include Costa Rica, the Slovak Republic, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Improvements were also observed in El Salvador, Georgia, Jordan, Cambodia, Mongolia, Montenegro, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Why not learn from China?

Don’t those responsible for education in Switzerland want to know why other countries performed better? They have plenty of excuses for not wanting to know. For example, that these countries have authoritarian school systems and put children under stress. Even if it isn’t true, these accusations have certainly been put out there! Perhaps they’d rather make excuses than finally discuss whether the school reforms that have been underway in Switzerland for years might have something to do with the ever-worsening results in Switzerland (and other European countries)?
    Many questions arise:
    Why is the Swiss school system still being subjected to a barrage of reforms, even though it was previously always praised as very good and well-suited to Swiss circumstances?
    Why has the gap between high-achieving and low-achieving pupils continued to widen in recent years?
    What role do teacher training colleges and the changed training of teachers play in this?
    Why has classroom teaching, as an intellectual and social learning environment, been abolished?
    What consequences does the shift in the teacher’s role from educator to coach or mentor have for children’s learning?
    Those responsible for education must address these questions and many others, and perhaps learn from China. After all, the PISA study poses the question in its subtitle: “Ready for the future?” Swiss schoolchildren are certainly not! •

¹https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2026/09/pisa-2025-results-volume-i_5265bfb1.html