Maths and reading performance among Irish students drops sharply in recent years

Ireland’s scores this round across all three categories of reading, maths, and science remained above both the EU and OECD averages.

Ireland’s performance in reading and maths significantly declined in recent years, although students’ test scores remain among the best in the world, the largest international study of education has found.

The latest round of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests released this morning worldwide shows Ireland remains ranked amongst the world’s leading countries in terms of educational outcomes.

Run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) every three years, PISA examines the knowledge and skills of a country’s 15-year-old students across reading, maths and science.

Ireland’s scores this round across all three categories of reading, maths, and science remained above both the EU and OECD averages.

However, despite an overall strong set of results, Ireland recorded significantly lower performance on reading and maths tests in PISA 2025 than in previous rounds.

These mean scores stood at 500 and 480, respectively, in 2025, a fall of 16 and 12 points compared with 516 and 492 in 2022. 

Ireland also did not have as high a proportion of top performers in the tests as might be expected given its overall strong performance.

PISA 2025 also found a strong gender divide in Ireland across science, with teenage boys testing better than girls, by an average of 7 points.

This is in sharp contrast to a pattern across the OECD and EU where girls tended to perform better.

Boys in Ireland also continued to achieve higher test scores than girls in maths, and scored higher in computational problem solving, while girls significantly outperformed boys in reading.

PISA 2025 also found:

•  Students born in Ireland to immigrant parents demonstrated strong performance across reading, maths, and science;

• Students in Transition Year outperformed, on average, their peers in other grade levels, with average differences ranging between 15 and 38 points;

• Students in DEIS schools had significantly lower average test scores than their peers in non-DEIS schools, ranging from 46 points (maths), 49 points (reading) and science (53 points). 

PISA 2025 saw more than 760,000 students around the world take the tests in 91 countries and regions, with a particular focus on science.

In Ireland, some 6,356 15-year-olds from 172 schools took part in the latest round of testing, which took place in 2025.

Irish students compared to international peers

Overall, Irish students were ranked third in the EU, 11th in the OECD, and 15th out of all 91 participating countries based on their mean score for science.

In reading, Ireland was ranked first in the EU, third in the OECD, and seventh in the world following this round of PISA testing. 

In maths, Ireland was ranked fourth in the EU, ninth in the OECD, and 14th in the world.

For 2025, Irish students’ mean score in science was 500, compared to the OECD average of 482, and the EU average of 476.

This is broadly in line with the scores recorded in both 2022 (504) and 2015 (503), and an increase from 2018 (496).

Irish students also scored well above both the EU and OECD averages across four subscales assessed in this category, in particular with environmental science.

Here, Ireland had a mean score of 503, compared to the OECD average of 480 and EU average of 473.

Declines in both maths and reading were replicated across both EU and OECD countries in PISA 2025.

Notably, these drops were more significant in other countries outside of Ireland.

In 2025, Irish students achieved mean reading scores of 500 and maths scores of 480.

This is compared to the OECD average of 461 and 463, and an EU average of 451 and 460.

However, in 2015 Ireland’s mean reading score stood at 521, and its mean maths score stood at 504.

In 2022, Ireland’s mean reading score was 516, and its maths score was 492.

Ireland also had lower proportions of students who scored on the lower levels of the tests in terms of proficiency.

This was 17.6% in science, 16.5% in reading and 24.2% in maths.

This compared to an OECD average of 25.7%, 31% and 34.9%, and an EU average of 27.3%, 33.9% and 34.8%.

Irish top maths performers compared lower than OECD average

However, Ireland’s proportion of top performers in maths (6.1%) was lower than the OECD average (7.8%), and the proportion of top performers in science (7.4%) was just in line with the OECD average (7.2%).

According to the Education Research Centre, which implements PISA on behalf of the Department of Education, Ireland did not have as high a proportion of students with advanced competencies as might be expected given its strong overall performance.

In reading, the proportion of top-performing students was much higher in Ireland (8.5%) when compared to the OECD and EU average, 5.5% and 4.2% respectively.

In PISA 2025, student performance in computational problem solving was also assessed. 

Here, students in Ireland achieved a mean score in computational problem solving of 511, compared to the OECD average of 500 and the EU average of 492.

Education minister Hildegarde Naughton said Ireland has maintained its position among the leading performers internationally at a time when many countries are experiencing significant declines in educational outcomes.

Ireland’s reading performance remains a significant success story, she said, adding “we cannot ignore the fact that reading achievement has declined internationally”.

“While our mathematics performance remains above OECD and EU averages, the results also highlight a trend of decline that has been observed both here and internationally.” 

“We must carefully examine these findings and continue to strengthen our efforts to improve numeracy outcomes for all learners.”