The latest edition of global educational survey PISA does not make pleasant reading for Spain, which has dropped down the rankings for its worst result since records began.
Spanish students have plummeted in the most recent PISA report, produced by the OECD, the major international assessment that compares pupil attainment levels across the globe.
Spain recorded its worst ever result in 2025 and the worst since the report was first published in 2000.
The PISA report, the major international assessment in which 760,000 15 and 16 year old students from 90 countries (30,000 of them were Spanish in this year’s edition) took part, was published on Tuesday and has caused concern in the Spanish press.
READ ALSO: The key 2026/2027 school dates in each region of Spain
Compared with the previous edition, in 2022, Spain fell 23 points in reading literacy, 16 in mathematics and 8 in science, the three core subjects of PISA assessments.
Spanish pupils’ scores now stand at 451 in reading, 457 in mathematics and 477 in science, falling short of the average for developed countries, which is 461, 463 and 482 respectively.
El País notes that the result comes despite a concerted effort by government to boost attainment levels: “following the publication of the results from the previous academic year – which were also very poor – in December 2023, the Government announced an ambitious plan to improve standards in reading and mathematics, which it has been unable to implement due to its failure to pass a budget.”
Spain has in recent years also seen protests by teachers against regional authorities, who, rather than central government in Madrid, enjoy the bulk of devolved powers in the education sector, for failing to allocate sufficient resources to the system.
Strikes have also been called at the start of the academic year in Catalonia, Madrid and Andalusia.
Almost half of the headteachers (49 percent) at schools where Spanish pupils sat the PISA tests say that they have a shortage of teachers, some 10 percentage points higher than the OECD average.
As for support staff, the proportion of Spanish headteachers who consider them insufficient soars to 72 percent, compared with an average of 39 percent across developed countries.
On a regional level, all 17 Spanish autonomous communities saw declines across all three subject areas, with the exception of Castilla-La Mancha in science.
The declines are particularly sharp in the case of the Basque Country and Valencia.
Spain ranked below countries like neighbouring France and Portugal, as well as countries like Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
However, Spain was not the only country to fall to record lows in the PISA rankings.
Danish schoolchildren also saw their worst results in the 25-year history of the poll this year.
Swedish pupils have also never before performed as poorly in mathematics, reading comprehension and science in any PISA survey, in what our colleagues at The Local Sweden called “shock results that present a stark wake-up call.”
READ ALSO: Swedish results in maths, reading and science plummet to historic low in new Pisa poll
