UK pupils rank highly again in international reading, maths and science tests

UK pupils rank highly again in international reading, maths and science tests. Image source, Ann Gannon / BBCByBranwen JeffreysEducation EditorPublished8 September 2026, 08:31 BSTUpdated 57 minutes agoEnglish pupils have pulled ahead of the rest of the UK in international reading, maths and science tests, new data suggests, with Scotland and Wales falling further behind.

What happened

The 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) saw reading and maths scores slump in each UK nation except England, while all four saw an uptick in science, with that rise again most notable in England. Wales falls further behind rest of UK in international school testsPublished4 hours agoPrimary teachers hired to teach Glasgow secondary pupils to readPublished4 hours agoWhile Wales lags behind the rest of the UK overall, on science it is ahead of other European countries such as France, Spain and the Netherlands.

Anna Brychan, Wales' minister for education and Welsh language, said plans were in place to support schools, adding that the results "highlight our need to improve standards of reading and maths, as a priority". Northern Ireland's education minister, Paul Givan, said pupils there had performed well by international standards, but that – like other countries – its education system was facing "significant challenges", adding that "there is much more work to do". Schools like Meadow Park, in Coventry, are adopting a range of approaches to improve pupils' reading skills, including weekly book club discussions led by tutors.

She said reading together had enabled the school to "break down that fear of reading" and that pupils had "absolutely embraced it". The latest Pisa report, which is published every three years, also warned of a worldwide decline in teenagers' reading skills.

The wider picture

Run by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Pisa tests assess teenagers on their ability to solve problems, think critically and communicate, before asking them a wider range of questions about their education in a questionnaire. Although the UK performed well overall, the rankings varied significantly again, with results showing England, where the curriculum is significantly different, pulling consistently ahead of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The 2025 Pisa tests were taken by a sample of 760,000 15-year-olds in 91 countries.

In the UK, where education differs between the home nations, 15,566 students took the tests in 515 schools. As the tests last year were taken by 15-year-olds, the results there largely reflect learning under an old curriculum, which has recently been changed. But Scottish Labour said results had "flatlined since 2022's historically poor results", while the Scottish Liberal Democrats said the education system under the SNP had "tumbled down the rankings, lagging behind England on every measure of performance".

Overall, the Pisa tests provide the biggest global snapshot of education systems and an independent view of how teenagers are performing compared with their peers in other countries, so it is a relative measure. Andreas Schleicher, director of education at the OECD, said reading was the "mother of all skills" and that the steep decline was a concern.

What has been reported

Year 10 pupil Ampaabeng said the sessions have had a "really positive impact" on his reading since they were brought in a year ago. The school has also invested in a wider range of books in the library, where reading for pleasure at lunchtime is encouraged. Image source, Ann Gannon / BBCImage caption, Bernadette Pettman says the school tries to make reading fun with book clubs, creative writing sessions and visits from authorsOne of the other big changes in education, picked up in the OECD's report, is the use of AI.

It warns that excessive use can lead to pupils avoiding looking up information themselves, a process sometimes called "cognitive off-loading". Additional reporting by data journalists Phil Leake, Jess Carr and Isobel CottamGet in touchHave you noticed reading skills declining? But the Pisa test scores vary significantly between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Teenagers were losing the skills that "matter most in the age of AI", such as being able to critically evaluate information from different sources, it said.

The share of "hasty readers", who rush through texts to give quick, incorrect answers, has almost doubled between 2018 and 2025.

What happens next

The report warned the fall was greatest in those from "relatively well off" families. England's schools minister, Georgia Gould, said the government wanted to "build on" the positive results and "go further so all young people leave school with strong literacy and numeracy". In England, where it was recently announced that technical subjects would soon be available to students from age 14, Gould held up high-performing Estonia as an example of where "academic excellence can go hand in hand with high-quality vocational routes".

"Our reforms will build on England's strong academic foundations so future generations not only perform well, but feel connected to school and excited about where their education can take them," she added. But Laura Trott, England's shadow education secretary, said the country's successes were down to previous reforms, and accused the new government of trying to "sabotage" them. Scotland's education secretary, Mairi McAllan, said the results showed "real strengths in Scottish education, as well as areas we're already working to improve".

He said children's ability to read complex texts had declined by the equivalent of "two school years" in the last decade.