Israeli students recorded their worst-ever results in all three subjects measured by the international Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), with Education Ministry officials describing the findings as a “catastrophic event on a historic scale,” according to results published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday.
No improvement was made in any of the three skills tested. Compared with the previous PISA tests in 2022, Israeli students fell eight places in science, seven in reading, and six in mathematics.
In science, Israeli students ranked 44th. While science performance was measured in no fewer than 90 countries, 20 countries ranked ahead of Israel while still scoring below the developed-country average, including the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Chile.
Students from China, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Estonia, South Korea, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia led the science rankings, far ahead of Israel.
In reading and mathematics, students from the 44 OECD member countries were assessed, and with developing countries excluded from the comparison, Israeli students found themselves alarmingly close to the bottom of the table.
Israel ranked 37th in reading, with 12 countries below the developed-world average still ranking ahead of it. And that was the good news.
In a comparison of mathematics skills among students from the 44 developed countries, Israel “won” 43rd place, with only Albania ranking below it.
For comparison, East Asian countries led the mathematics rankings, while the UK, for example, placed 10th, well above the average. Even the US, which scored below the average, ranked 27th.
Israel hits lowest recorded PISA scores in 2025
Across all three subjects, Israel’s 2025 PISA results were the lowest ever recorded for the country and were significantly lower than those recorded in 2018, 2015 and 2012.
Compared with 2015, the proportion of Israeli students classified as low performers, with scores below proficiency Level 2, rose by 14 percentage points in mathematics, 14 percentage points in reading and nine percentage points in science.
Social disparities in Israel do not explain the strikingly poor results, the report says. Between 2022 and 2025, the gap in Israel between the highest-scoring students, the top 10%, and the weakest students, the bottom 10%, did not change significantly in mathematics or science, while it narrowed in reading.
Every three years, the National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education and the Education Ministry publish a detailed national analysis simultaneously with, or close to, the OECD’s official publication.
But long after the organization had granted media representatives full access to the data, and despite the publication being known about and scheduled years in advance, representatives of Education Minister Yoav Kisch and officials from the measurement authority still had not managed to “complete the necessary coordination regarding the format of publication.”
In other words, while Kisch could not prevent the publication of the embarrassing report, which casts his tenure in the stark colors of failure, he tried to delay it until the last moment and chose to hold a media “briefing” at the exact time the report was released.
This came after the publication of the nationwide Meitzav assessment results was postponed, by agreement between the sides, until the end of the month despite the bad blood between Kisch and the authority, in an effort to soften the blow that the PISA report was expected to deal the Education Ministry.
PISA tests skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students
PISA tests are conducted once every three years and measure the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in education systems around the world, not only in OECD member states. For Israel’s education system, however, the main benchmark is the average performance among developed countries.
The assessment focuses on three main areas: reading, mathematics, and science. In practice, it measures how prepared teenagers are to cope with the challenges of modern society and integrate into the future labor market.
The tests examine students’ ability to solve complex problems, think critically, and communicate effectively. Israel first participated in PISA in 2002.
“In Israel, all data met the quality standards established by PISA and were considered suitable for reporting,” the OECD stressed.
The organization added that a smaller share of students in Israel than the OECD average were top performers, reaching Level 5 or 6, in at least one subject. At the same time, fewer Israeli students than the OECD average reached the minimum proficiency level, Level 2 or higher, in all three subjects.
Israeli students’ average score in computational problem-solving was also below the OECD average.
Only about 5% of students in Israel were top performers in mathematics, meaning they reached Level 5 or 6 on the PISA mathematics assessment, compared with an OECD average of 8%.
At these levels, students can interpret complex situations mathematically and can select, compare and evaluate appropriate problem-solving strategies for dealing with them.
Only 54% of Israeli students reached at least Level 2 in mathematics, compared with 65% on average across the OECD.
At a minimum, students at this level can interpret and identify, without direct instructions, how a simple situation can be represented mathematically, such as comparing the total distance across two alternative routes or converting prices into another currency.
Only 4% of students tested in Israel were top performers in science, compared with an OECD average of 7%, meaning they demonstrated proficiency at Level 5 or 6.
Students at these levels can apply their scientific knowledge creatively and independently in a wide range of situations, including unfamiliar ones.
About 60% of students in Israel reached Level 2 or higher in science, compared with 74% on average across the OECD.
At a minimum, these students can identify the correct explanation for familiar scientific phenomena and can use that knowledge to determine, in simple cases, whether a conclusion is valid based on the data provided.
More than 85% of students in the highest-performing countries, China, Singapore, Estonia, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, reached this level or higher.
Five percent of students scored at Level 5 or above in reading, compared with an OECD average of 6%.
Students at this level can understand lengthy texts, deal with abstract or counterintuitive concepts and distinguish between fact and opinion based on implicit clues relating to the content or the source of the information.
About 59% of students in Israel reached Level 2 or higher in reading, compared with 69% on average across the OECD.
At a minimum, these students can identify the main idea in a moderate-length text, locate information based on explicit (though sometimes complex) criteria, and reflect on the purpose and form of texts when explicitly instructed to do so.
