The results of the 2025 Pisa study, for which 760,000 15-year-olds from 91 countries were tested, were published on Tuesday. The international trend pointed to a further decline in performance in reading, maths and science. In Europe, countries such as Estonia, Ireland, Poland and Switzerland did well whereas Germany's results hit an all-time low. The press looks at causes and consequences.
The fact that children in Luxembourg have fallen further behind in particular regarding reading skills can also be put down to their having poor role models, Tageblatt points out:
“Every adult in this country has a hand in this development, some more and some less. ... We'd rather watch videos on social media than read an article. We let AI spit out an answer to every question, no matter how silly, instead of researching three sources ourselves and forming our own opinion. All this saves us effort, but in the long run it takes a toll on our own powers of reasoning. Ever fewer households have a newspaper subscription and ever fewer adults read books on a regular basis – yet we are the role models for our children. If the adults at home barely read, why should the younger generation?”
Even though Swiss pupils continue to rank among the best in Europe, their performance has also declined. Le Temps calls for a renewed focus on core skills:
“Today, one in three young people in Switzerland lacks the minimum basic knowledge. This must change. The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education has already taken steps in this direction. It repeatedly emphasises that reading, writing and arithmetic must (once again) be given priority. Simply saying this is not enough. The message must penetrate all the way into our classrooms. And it must also reach the parliaments: we must put an end to the practice of saddling schools with all sorts of additional responsibilities – first-aid courses, nutrition, Swiss German, etc., and allow them to concentrate on their core mission.”
Die Zeit says poor conditions alone can't justify such poor performance:
“A single teacher can make such a difference. By listening, showing genuine interest, and giving lessons that cater to individuals. ... No one is saying that teachers should push themselves beyond their limits, take fewer holidays or give up their privileges; no one wants them to be raked over the coals. But when only 56 percent of German pupils say in the Pisa survey that they think their teachers take an interest in each individual pupil's learning progress, that figure is far too low. After all, it means that almost half of the pupils have the impression that their teachers don't care about them. By tomorrow at the latest, every teaching body in Germany should have convened a meeting to finally ask themselves: what does Pisa mean to us?”
Even Poland's strong Pisa results are not without a downside, writes Tygodnik Powszechny:
“Things are at least looking good again and we can be proud of ourselves once more. In a country that has been chasing the mythical West for almost four decades, a chart showing that – in the crucial field of education – Poland is once again leaving Germany, France, Spain and Italy trailing far behind is bound to make an impression. ... We basically perform poorly in those areas where the assessment of hard skills ends and the image of school as a place for people comes to the fore. Polish fifteen-year-olds are less likely to feel properly integrated into their school community than their peers from other countries.”
“This widespread decline in young people's intellectual abilities – which are essential for making their way in life and contributing to the progress of a more educated and just society – coincides with the rise of illiberal or authoritarian political forces. Such a state of affairs does not bode well for the future and calls for a complete overhaul of the education system, which must be shielded from budgetary fluctuations or cutbacks, as well as stronger protection for young people immersed in the digital world. ... Continuing to slip down the Pisa rankings is a suicidal path.”
Only 59 percent of pupils in Latvia performed well on reading comprehension. Neatkarīgā examines this result against the backdrop of the abolition of Russian as a language of instruction in 2023:
“There is no doubt that certain politicians will use this study as an argument that teaching in a language other than the mother tongue lowers children's overall educational standards, and that consequently bilingual education must be reinstated, at least in part. Such attempts by politicians to gain political advantage at the expense of children should be met with the utmost severity. There is no turning back from the unified education system, nor will there ever be. The state must make clear: parents who hinder rather than encourage their children in learning the Latvian language are only harming their future.”
The UK has announced plans to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This is part of a wider re-calibration in its relations with Israel, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Tuesday in London. France, Canada, Denmark and other countries have also announced import bans and sanctions. Will this have an impact on the upcoming elections in Israel?
The bans are counterproductive, The Spectator criticises:
“Not one of the serious contenders in the forthcoming Israeli elections [on 27 October] is campaigning to withdraw from the West Bank. That is because 7 October extinguished the remaining vestiges of support for a two-state solution within Israeli society. Miliband's sanctions will not suddenly persuade the major parties to commit electoral suicide by changing course. If anything, this pre-election announcement risks emboldening the more extreme messianic politicians who actively want to isolate Israel from the international community and transform it from a thriving secular democracy into a theocracy resembling others in the region.”
It all comes down to how the sanctions are implemented now, The Guardian observes:
“Mr Miliband has been characteristically brave. But the test is not what he said, but what he enforces in the weeks and months ahead. He promises a 'sanctions regime' to take action against 'companies and individuals' aiding settlements. Britain has accepted the principle that it must sever the business ties that uphold an unlawful occupation. The test is whether Mr Miliband can turn that into a comprehensive embargo, rather than a symbolic blacklist.”
“A passionate and stirring speech that went to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If we are to maintain a glimmer of hope – says the government in London – we must take decisive action and not allow Netanyahu's government to effectively destroy the prospect of a Palestinian state. Banning imports from the settlements is of virtually no economic significance. We are talking about a mere one percent of the volume of trade with Israel. In terms of foreign policy, however, it is a serious blow that further isolates Netanyahu seven weeks before the elections.”
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