Turkey Surpasses Israel in PISA 2025 Rankings Amid Historic Israeli Score Drop
Turkey celebrated major gains in the PISA 2025 international literacy tests, surpassing Israel across all categories as Israeli students suffered a historic decline in performance, sparking a fierce political controversy.
Turkey celebrated the results of the PISA 2025 international literacy tests on Tuesday, marking a significant improvement across all categories, which triggered a political storm in Israel following a sharp decline in the performance of Israeli students.
Significant Advances for Turkey in PISA 2025
According to the PISA 2025 results published by the OECD, Turkey improved its ranking in all fields and surpassed the OECD average in science and reading skills. Turkey's ranking rose by 15 places in science, 18 places in reading skills, and 11 places in mathematics.
The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2025, conducted by the OECD with the participation of 91 countries, were published in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Turkey's results surpassed those of Israel across all literacy categories tested by the exam. Turkish students scored 494 in science compared to 442 for Israel, 472 in reading compared to 432 for Israel, and 462 points in mathematics compared to 433 points for Israeli students.
Turkey has participated since 2003 in the PISA exams, which are conducted every three years by the OECD to assess the science, reading, and mathematics skills of 15-year-old students in formal education and to compare countries. The PISA research included 41 countries in 2003, 57 in 2006, 65 in 2009 and 2012, 72 in 2015, 79 in 2018, and 81 in 2022.
The final assessment of PISA 2025 was conducted in Turkey between April 14 and May 16, 2025, using a computer-based system, with the participation of 7,702 students from 203 schools across 56 provinces and 12 regions.
Historical Decline in Israeli Student Performance
Conversely, the published data reveals the largest drop in student achievement in the history of the State of Israel, with the scale of the decline ranking among the largest ever recorded in OECD countries in the PISA study. The graphs show a sharp collapse across all three literacy areas: science, reading, and mathematics, returning Israeli student achievements to a historical low after a decade and a half of upward trends.
Against the backdrop of these data, a senior official at the Ministry of Education criticized Minister Yoav Kisch, claiming that the minister attempted to influence how the data was presented and to downplay the event.
«The Minister of Education asked to turn a systemic event, the sharpest decline in history across all fields, into a localized event. He asked that we not mention that this is one of the sharpest declines in history in science and mathematics. We refused the request after consulting with a series of figures.»
