German school pupils have recorded their worst-ever results in the PISA international assessment – and the gap between socially privileged and disadvantaged children appears to be widening.
Students in Germany achieved their lowest scores in mathematics, reading and science, according to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study.
The PISA study, which takes place every three years, involves testing 15-year-olds on basic skills in more than 90 countries worldwide. Around 760,000 students took part last year, including around 6,700 from Germany.
Here, around one in three 15-year-olds did not reach the basic proficiency level in reading or mathematics, while roughly one in four fell below that level in science. Germany's 2025 results are the lowest ever measured by PISA in all three subjects in the country since the study began in the year 2000.
Performance has generally declined since 2015, with the trend particularly pronounced in mathematics. German pupils scored more than 500 PISA points in mathematics in 2015, compared with 464 in 2025.
