PISA Tests: What the Comparative Results from 2015 to 2025 Tell Us

Over the past 10 years, students’ knowledge and skills in math, reading, and science have declined significantly, both in Romania and across the OECD, according to the 2015–2025 comparative analysis conducted by Monitorul Social.

In Romania, the average PISA score in 2025 fell by 25 points in mathematics, 21 points in reading, and 10 points in science compared to 2015. A similar trend is observed among OECD countries: over the same period, average scores dropped by 27 points in math, 32 points in reading, and 11 points in science.

The PISA assessment, conducted once every three years, aims to measure how well 15-year-old students can use and apply their knowledge and skills in mathematics, reading, and science in real-life contexts.

Romania, Below the OECD Average

On average, 15-year-old students in Romania scored lower than the OECD average. In 2025, Romanian students scored 425 points in science, 413 points in reading, and 419 points in math. Romania ranks among the bottom three countries in the EU in all three assessed areas. Within the European Union, students from Estonia and Finland achieved the best results in science, those from Estonia and Poland in math, and those from Ireland and Estonia in reading. Ten years ago, in 2015, Romanian students scored 435 points in science, 434 points in reading, and 444 points in math.

The OECD average in 2025 was 482 in science, 461 in reading, and 463 in math. In 2015, students in OECD countries had an average score of 493 points in science, 493 in reading, and 490 in math. At the same time, in 2015, Romania ranked among the lowest in the EU27 in each of the three subjects, a trend that has continued over the past 10 years.

In interpreting PISA scores, 20 points correspond to approximately one year of schooling. In practical terms, the differences from the OECD average suggest that students in Romania are, on average, about two and a half years behind the average 15-year-old student in OECD countries—a gap that has persisted over the past 10 years.

Many Students Lack Basic Skills

The 2025 PISA tests show that approximately 38.5% of 15-year-old students in Romania score below Level 2 in all three subject areas. In other words, nearly 4 out of 10 students do not meet the threshold for basic skills in mathematics, reading, or science.

Basic competencies are measured by achieving at least Level 2 on the PISA scale, which ranges from 1 to 6, where 1 = the lowest level of proficiency and 6 = the highest level of proficiency.

By comparison, in 2015, approximately 24.3% were below Level 2 in all three subjects, representing an increase of about 14 percentage points. In contrast, the OECD average is 19.7%, with an increase of about 7 percentage points since 2015. In the EU27, only Cyprus and Bulgaria recorded a higher percentage in 2025, at 43.5% and 41.9%, respectively.

By subject, the 2025 data show that 52% of Romanian students lack basic proficiency in mathematics, 48% in reading, and 46% in science. By comparison, the OECD average is 35% in mathematics, 31% in reading, and 26% in science. Thus, across the three tested subjects, approximately half of Romania’s 15-year-old students did not achieve PISA Level 2, which is considered the minimum threshold for basic proficiency.

In other words, half of the 15-year-old students currently in the system (excluding those who have dropped out) have difficulty applying their knowledge in simple, everyday contexts. The results point to a structural deficit in basic skills, with the gap relative to the OECD average having remained constant over the past 10 years across all three assessed areas.

Very few students reach the highest proficiency levels

Regarding the proportion of students with high scores in any of the three subjects (proficiency levels 5 or 6 on the PISA scale), only 4.8% of 15-year-old students in Romania achieved this, a slight increase from 2015, when the percentage was 4.1%. Among the EU27 countries, Romania ranks among those with the lowest proportions, alongside Bulgaria and Greece.

The OECD average is 11.9% in 2025, down from 15.3% in 2015.

The situation is no better when it comes to high performance in each subject: in 2025, only 2% of Romanian students reached the highest levels in science, 1% in reading, and 4% in mathematics. The OECD averages in 2025 were 7%, 8%, and 6%, respectively.

Romania, Among the Countries Where Family Background Has the Greatest Impact on School Performance

The 2025 PISA tests show that, in Romania, there is a 122-point gap in science scores between students from families with high socioeconomic status and those from families with low socioeconomic status. In this regard, Romania ranks 87th out of 90 participating countries in terms of this disparity.

At the same time, socioeconomic status accounts for 21.7% of the variation in science scores—one of the highest proportions among participating countries—with Romania ranking second to last among the 90 countries for which this indicator was calculated. Therefore, it can be argued that the Romanian education system does too little to ensure educational inclusion and to compensate for the lack of resources among students from socioeconomically disadvantaged families.

In 2015, the score gap in science was 76 points between students from families with high socioeconomic status and those from families with low socioeconomic status. In the same year, socioeconomic status accounted for 13.8% of the variation in science scores, similar to the OECD average of 12.9%.

***

Data source:

• Ministry of Education (2026). The Romanian Educational System as Reflected in National and International Assessments: PISA 2025 Focus. Available at: https://www.edu.ro/press_rel_64_26_PISA_2025_rezultate_RO
• OECD (2026), PISA 2025 Results (Volume I): Future-Ready Students, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/73451bc5-en.
• OECD (2023), PISA 2022 Results (Volume I): The State of Learning and Equity in Education, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/53f23881-en.
• OECD (2019), PISA 2018 Results (Volume I): What Students Know and Can Do, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5f07c754-en.
• OECD (2016), PISA 2015 Results (Volume I): Excellence and Equity in Education, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264266490-en.

Data processing and text design: Sebastian Țoc

Infographic: Pascalone Media SRL

The media may reproduce the text and infographic, provided the source is cited.