Education reform under way as Scotland sees 'poorest' Pisa results

The education secretary says she will oversee the "largest reform" to Scotland's curriculum after a school survey showed a slight decline in reading and maths.

The 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) saw pupils in Scotland and Wales fall behind England in reading, maths and science tests.

The international study, which is published every three years, records the knowledge and skills of more than 760,000 15-year-olds from 91 countries.

Màiri McAllan said she is "clear-eyed" about the results, but while they "indicate success in our education system" they also "indicate change is required".

Scotland has taken part in every cycle of the study, which has been co-ordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 2000.

Some 115 schools and colleges and 3,066 pupils across the country took part in the 2025 assessment.

The report showed performance in Scotland's secondary schools had improved in science but worsened in reading and maths since 2022.

But although the mean scores changed in all three main categories since the previous Pisa assessment, the latest performance was not significantly below earlier results.

This suggests the changes were small enough that they could be explained by chance.

However Keir Bloomer, chairman of the Commission on School Reform, described the latest results as "very disappointing".

"Since Pisa began to be introduced in the year 2000, this is the poorest set of results that Scotland has achieved," he told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast.

Bloomer added Scotland has "seen a steady decline over the years in all three of the main areas which it tests".

He said while Scotland showed an improvement in science, it is still "far behind where we were when the Pisa testing started".

Scotland's score in the 2025 Pisa assessment for reading was 488.

This is down from 493 in the 2022 study, and also a drop from 504 in 2018 and 526 in 2000 - when the Pisa tests started.

The reading performance was still above the average across all OECD countries - except Costa Rica, Luxembourg and Spain - of 463 points.

Scotland's reading score is ahead of Wales (459) and Northern Ireland (482) but behind England (497), which saw its performance improve since the last study.

For maths, the score in Scotland was 467, down from 471 in 2022 and just above the OECD average of 465 points.

The latest score for maths continues the trend of worsening performance in Scotland as the score was 489 and 491 in 2018 and 2015, respectively.

Compared with other UK nations, Scotland is behind Northern Ireland (473) and England (492) but ahead of Wales (456).

In science, Scotland's score was 491 points, which is above the 483 score recorded in 2022 and the 490 result in 2018.

The Scotland score is ahead of Wales (476) and the OECD average (484), but behind Northern Ireland (492) and England (516).

Education Secretary Màiri McAllan said the latest data showed "Scotland enjoys an internationally competitive position", but reform was under way to improve Scotland's curriculum.

She noted for reading, the Pisa scores put Scotland ahead of countries such as Northern Ireland, Finland, Italy and Wales, while for science Scotland was ranked above Italy, Sweden, Germany, and Wales.

"The changes to the curriculum I am now overseeing will be the largest reform to Curriculum for Excellence since it was introduced in 2010," McAllan told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast.

"They are about clarifying the role of knowledge in our curriculum and the progression a young person ought to make through the curriculum.

"I believe it is necessary, but equally I will not do it to the exclusion of everything else that makes our education system good for our young people, including those other curricular areas like problem solving, moral education, creative expression."

The education secretary said the Pisa study is just one of the measuring standards in Scotland's secondary schools.

Last month's annual exam results showed pass rates across Nationals, Highers, Advanced Highers and Skill for Work Awards had increased.

McAllan added: "My ultimate goal is that young people will enter our education system and be able to achieve both academic excellence and vocational excellences that sets them up well for life."

Katherine Sangster, Scottish Labour's education spokeswoman, claimed McAllan was "in denial" over the challenges facing Scotland's education system.

"The education secretary's dismissive response to these shameful figures is an insult to Scotland's pupils, parents and teachers," she said.

"The SNP must stop making excuses and give a clear commitment to improve our education system and give young people the education they deserve."

Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman Meghan Gallacher said McAllan had tried "to defend the indefensible" and has "no confidence" in her own plans.

She said: "After two decades of SNP failure, Scotland's education system is going backwards and this latest performance shows the SNP still have no credible plan to turn it around."