New Zealand PISA 2025 Results Show Stable Performance with Gains in Digital Skills

Results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 indicate achievement is stabilising after years of decline but more needs to be done to lift performance, Education Minister Erica Stanford says.

New Zealand students remain above the OECD average across all three subjects, ranking ninth in reading, tenth in science, and 16th in mathematics. These results are broadly similar to PISA 2022.

Positively, New Zealand students were amongst the highest performers in computational problem-solving, which was part of the 2025 PISA focus area, Learning in the Digital World.

New Zealand students were also more positive about school in 2025 than they were in 2022, with more saying they learned useful things and felt prepared for adult life.

Compared with 2022, PISA 2025 shows: The achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students narrowed in all three subjects.

The number of students who reported applying additional effort when work becomes challenging increased by 6.9 percent Students placed greater value on school and were more likely to say they are learning useful skills for work and life.

It is encouraging to see students value what they are learning and build the skills they need for a changing world, Ms Stanford said.

While these PISA results are encouraging, some caution should be applied when interpreting the data.

New Zealand did not meet the OECD participation requirements for PISA 2025. Only 52 percent of selected schools and 76 percent of selected students took part. This means the results may look more positive than they would in a fully representative sample and need to be treated with care.

PISA and other similar longitudinal international studies provide valuable insights into how our education system is performing and changing over time.

Ms Stanford said taking part in international studies is essential.

Together with our national data, these studies help us understand the strengths of our education system and where we need to improve.

This is why the Government recently passed legislation that requires selected schools to participate in PISA and other international monitoring tools.

Greater use of data to drive consistent improvement is one of my six education priorities. We are focused on using data from studies such as PISA to make decisions to raise student achievement PISA Science 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2022 2025 New Zealand - - 530 532 516 513 508 504 509 OECD Mean - - 495 498 498 491 489 485 482 PISA Reading 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2022 2025 New Zealand 529 522 521 521 512 509 506 501 497 OECD Mean 494 494 485 491 493 490 487 476 461 PISA Maths 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2022 2025 New Zealand - 523 522 519 500 495 494 479 480 OECD Mean - 499 490 492 490 487 489 472 463