Strong international ranking masks two decades of falling achievement

Summarised by Centrist

New Zealand teenagers remain among the stronger performers internationally, but their reading, maths and science results are substantially below those recorded two decades ago. The latest scores may also have been inflated by a sample skewed towards higher-achieving students.

The 2025 PISA assessment placed New Zealand ninth internationally in reading, 10th-equal in science and 14th-equal in maths.

However, the rankings partly reflect declining achievement across the developed world. New Zealand’s own results remain well below those recorded when each subject was first assessed as a major PISA domain.

Reading has fallen from 529 points in 2000 to 497. Maths has dropped from 523 in 2003 to 480, while science has declined from 530 in 2006 to 509.

The latest round provides little evidence that this long-term decline has been reversed. Since the previous assessment, reading fell four points, science improved five points and maths rose by just one. The Ministry of Education describes overall performance as broadly stable.

There is also an important qualification. The ministry says New Zealand’s sample contained a disproportionate number of higher-achieving students, meaning average scores “might be inflated by 10-15 points”.

It cautioned that similar, though probably smaller, sampling problems may have affected earlier assessments and other countries. The precise effect on New Zealand’s ranking and long-term trend is therefore uncertain.

Boys’ reading performance presents another concern. Their average fell 11 points, widening the gap with girls to 34 points. Boys remained 12 points ahead of girls in maths, while science results showed little gender difference.

Science scores among students from the poorest backgrounds rose 20 points, while Māori students improved by 10 points and Pacific students by 15. However, the science gap between the richest and poorest students remained 91 points.

The OECD also found students increasingly struggled with longer texts and questions drawing on several sources. 

Thirty-eight per cent of New Zealand students reported being distracted by digital resources during most or every science lesson, compared with 28 per cent across the OECD.

Read more at RNZ

Receive our free newsletter here