UK Pupils Rank Highly in International Reading, Maths, and Science Tests

Students in the UK have scored well in a major set of international tests that measure how teenagers perform in reading, maths, and science. The tests, called PISA, are taken every three years by hundreds of thousands of 15-year-olds around the world. This year, about 760,000 students in 91 countries took part. In the UK alone, more than 15,500 students from 515 schools were tested. The results show the UK holding steady in the global rankings.

The UK ranked below the top performers, such as Singapore, Estonia, and some parts of China. However, the UK did better than the United States, Australia, and many other large European countries. Within the UK, England scored higher than Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Experts say this is partly because England follows a different school curriculum than the other home nations. The results show that where you go to school — and which country you are in — can make a big difference in how students perform.

England's schools minister, Georgia Gould, said the government wants to 'build on' the strong results and make sure all young people leave school with solid reading and maths skills. She pointed to Estonia as a great example, saying it shows that doing well in school subjects can go hand in hand with learning practical, job-ready skills. The government recently announced that technical subjects would be offered to students as young as 14. Gould said these changes would help future students feel more connected to school and excited about where their education could take them.

The PISA report came with a serious warning, though — reading skills among teenagers around the world are falling. The number of so-called 'hasty readers' — students who rush through a text and give quick, wrong answers — has nearly doubled since 2018. Experts say this drop is especially large among students from better-off families, which surprised many people. Andreas Schleicher, who leads education at the OECD, called reading the 'mother of all skills.' He said children's ability to read complex texts has dropped by the equal of two full school years over the last decade.

Schleicher and other experts say the skills being lost are exactly the ones needed most in today's world, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence, or AI. Being able to carefully read and judge information from different sources is more important than ever. Longer-term research from PISA also found that students who read longer books tended to perform best overall. Reading longer texts helps students hold complex ideas in their minds. This is a skill that is hard to build if you are used to scrolling through short posts on a phone.

Some schools are already working hard to help students read more and better. Meadow Park School in Coventry, England, has started weekly book club discussions led by teachers. The school has also added more books to its library and encourages students to read for fun during lunchtime. A Year 10 student named Ampaabeng said the book clubs have had a 'really positive impact' on his reading over the past year. Head teacher Bernadette Pettman said that reading together has helped the school 'break down that fear of reading' and that students have 'absolutely embraced it.'

Meadow Park also introduced a mobile phone ban two years ago to cut down on distractions — a step the PISA report says is a good idea. The report warns that too much screen time and phone use pulls students away from deeper reading. Researchers say the digital world makes it tempting to find quick answers instead of thinking things through. That habit of letting a device do your thinking for you is sometimes called 'cognitive off-loading.' The PISA report says this is a growing problem in many countries.

AI tools are another big topic in the new report. The OECD found that many countries are letting AI spread quickly in schools without fully understanding its effects. Schleicher compared this to giving children a vaccine that has never been properly tested. In the UK, PISA survey results showed that a fairly high number of teenagers said they had never used AI for schoolwork. Still, experts are calling on governments to set clear rules for how AI should be used in schools — to support teaching, rather than simply giving students fast answers.