The Ukrainian Center for Evaluation of Education Quality has published the national report on the results of the international PISA-2025 study, which covered 15-year-old students. The key conclusion of the document: the sharp deterioration of indicators recorded in 2022 did not continue, and there is no basis for speaking of a new significant decline in the level of knowledge. According to data cited by RBC-Ukraine, the average results of Ukrainian schoolchildren in mathematics, reading, and science in 2025 were slightly lower than in 2022, however, this difference is not statistically significant. The authors of the report characterize the situation as stabilization at a reduced level, rather than a continuation of a downward trend.

Stabilization after the 2022 collapse

To correctly interpret the results, it is important to take the chronology into account. Between Ukraine's first PISA cycle (2018) and the second (2022), there was a significant drop in indicators across all three subjects. The 2022 study was conducted under conditions of a full-scale war, which inevitably affected the educational process. The PISA-2025 data show that after this collapse, no further deterioration has been recorded: the changes between 2022 and 2025 are within the margin of statistical error. A similar trend — a slight decline without statistical significance — is also observed on average across all PISA participating countries.

Comparison with 2018: the gap remains substantial

At the same time, comparing the 2025 results with the indicators of the first PISA cycle paints a considerably more alarming picture. In all three areas — mathematics, reading, and science — the results of Ukrainian 15-year-olds are substantially lower than in 2018. The most pronounced gap has been recorded in reading. Thus, although there is no statistically significant deterioration relative to 2022, there are also no signs yet of a return to the 2018 level. The authors of the report emphasize that stabilization occurred at a substantially lower level than in the first cycle, and the task of returning the results at least to the 2018 indicators remains relevant across all three subjects.

OECD context: why the gap formally narrowed

The average results of OECD countries in 2025 were also lower than in 2022, and the changes there were more substantial: indicators in mathematics and especially in reading deteriorated in a statistically significant way, whereas the shift in science did not reach statistical significance. As a result, the formal gap between Ukraine and the OECD average has narrowed: in reading — from 49 to 3 points, in science — from 36 to 34 points, and in mathematics it remained at 32 points. However, the authors of the report explicitly warn: this narrowing does not mean an improvement in the results of Ukrainian schoolchildren. It occurred primarily due to a deeper decline in indicators in OECD countries. In absolute terms, Ukraine's results in all three areas in 2025 remain substantially below the OECD bloc's average.

Report conclusions and educational tasks

The final assessment by the authors of the PISA-2025 national report comes down to the following: Ukraine is characterized by stabilization after the significant deterioration recorded between 2018 and 2022, but at a substantially lower level. The priority task for the upcoming study cycles is not simply to maintain the current indicators, but to deliberately raise the results to at least the level of the first PISA cycle — in reading, mathematics, and science. Without solving this task, the gap with the OECD international average will persist.

Educational context: the 2026 NMT

The PISA-2025 results come against the backdrop of an ongoing discussion about the quality of school education in Ukraine. In 2026, the New Ukrainian National Test (NMT) was taken by nearly 330,000 applicants, demonstrating their knowledge in mandatory and elective subjects; the test results determine the opportunities for admission to higher education institutions. According to the NMT-2026 results, mathematics became the subject with the lowest average score among all subjects, and it was precisely in mathematics that the largest number of cases was recorded in which applicants failed to reach the threshold score. This further underscores the systemic nature of the problems pointed out by the international PISA study as well.