The international PISA-2025 study has documented persistent educational inequality in Ukraine: 15-year-old students from rural areas lag so far behind their peers in large cities that the gap is equivalent to roughly three years of schooling in mathematics and is even more pronounced in reading and the natural sciences. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing the study's official report. Because the PISA methodology treats approximately 20 points as equivalent to one year of schooling, even a moderate difference in scores translates into a multi-year difference in actual knowledge levels.

Geography of results: the larger the city, the higher the scores

The study revealed a clear pattern: average student results rise with the size of the settlement. The lowest scores were recorded among schoolchildren from villages, hamlets, and other settlements with populations of up to 3,000 people, while the highest were among students in cities with populations exceeding one million. Thus, a teenager's place of residence becomes one of the key predictors of their academic achievement, outweighing many individual factors in significance.

Why the inequality forms

The authors of the report explain these differences as a combination of structural causes: uneven access to educational resources, differences in socio-economic conditions, the staffing of schools, and opportunities for out-of-school development. In essence, the point is that in small settlements both the educational infrastructure and the pool of teachers, as well as supplementary educational programs, are systematically limited, which accumulates into a multi-year lag by the time a student turns 15.

Dynamics over three cycles: stability after a decline

The report compared the results of three study cycles — 2018, 2022, and 2025. After a notable deterioration in scores between 2018 and 2022, the results of students in most types of settlements remained stable in 2025. Overall, the knowledge level of Ukrainian 15-year-olds stabilized after the significant drop in 2022, although the average results in mathematics, reading, and the natural sciences are somewhat lower than before; however, according to the report, this difference is not statistically significant.

The exception — large cities

The only notable exception in 2025 was large cities: the average score in mathematics there fell statistically significantly — from 501 points in 2022 to 460 points in 2025. This decline, against the backdrop of overall stability in other types of settlements, stands out as a separate trend requiring additional analysis by education authorities.

Sample limitations and caveats

More than 7,000 15-year-old teenagers took part in the study, of whom 77.2% were from the cities of 17 regions of Ukraine. Ukraine participated in PISA for the third time: the first results were published following the 2018 cycle, the second in 2022, and this year the 2025 data became available. The latest cycle involved the smallest number of regions for security reasons, which, according to the authors, may also have partly affected the results and the representativeness of the sample.