Wales slips further behind other UK nations in international school tests
Mark Mansfield
Wales has slipped further behind other parts of the UK in a major international assessment of school performance, with new results highlighting continuing concerns over standards.
The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results show Welsh 15-year-olds performing significantly below their counterparts in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland in science, while longer-term results show declining performance in reading and mathematics.
Wales’ mathematics score fell again in 2025, while reading and science remained broadly stable compared with the previous tests in 2022.
However, the results also show Wales performing comparatively well in limiting the impact of deprivation on attainment, with the gap between its most and least disadvantaged learners significantly narrower than the OECD average.
Researchers found socioeconomic status had less impact on attainment in Wales across all three subjects than it did across OECD countries as a whole.
In mathematics, Wales recorded an average score of 456, significantly below the OECD average of 463 and down from 466 in 2022.
The latest result was also significantly below the scores of 487 recorded in 2018 and 478 in 2015.
Wales’ average science score increased from 473 in 2022 to 476, although the change was not statistically significant. The latest figure remained significantly below the OECD average of 482.
Reading produced a score of 459, compared with 466 in 2022, a difference that was also not statistically significant. But performance remained significantly below the 483 recorded in 2018 and 477 in 2015.
Cabinet Minister for Education and the Welsh Language Anna Brychan acknowledged the results were not where the Welsh Government wanted them to be but said there would be no knee-jerk response.
She said: “Let me be clear, these results are not where we want them to be. But in many ways, they reinforce what we knew already and highlight our need to improve standards of reading and maths, as a priority. We must also do more to ensure our highest-achieving learners reach their full potential.
“I am encouraged that our most disadvantaged learners compare well internationally, and we are indebted to our teaching profession for supporting learners to achieve regardless of background. But it is clear that we have much more work to do.
“PISA results are not the only measure of performance and standards in our schools need to be understood in the round. But that does not mean that we should ignore them, either – and we take our performance in international studies incredibly seriously.”
Mathematics baseline
The report found 36% of learners in Wales performed below PISA’s baseline proficiency level in mathematics, compared with an OECD average of 35%, while 6% reached the two highest levels compared with 8% internationally.
In reading, 31% were below the baseline level and 4% reached the highest levels, while the respective figures for science were 27% and 6%.
Ms Brychan said the findings highlighted longstanding problems requiring a considered response.
She said: “PISA highlights longstanding issues that require a considered and joined-up response. This is not the fault of schools or teachers and we have inherited an education system that lacks clarity, coherence and a sure sense of direction. These are the things we have set out to address.
“What matters now is what happens next and delivering on our promise to better support the education system to raise standards. I will soon be launching our Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Plan that represents an important first step in the development of an equitable education system that works for all.”
She added: “We are a new government with new ambition and make no apologies for setting the bar high. But raising standards is a team effort that will require the expertise, energy and determination of all with an interest in education in Wales.”
‘Wake-up call’
Sam Rowlands MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Education, said: “These results should be a wake-up call for the Welsh Government.
“Wales is being left behind by every other part of the UK in maths, reading and science and the gap with England is particularly stark.
“Decades of socialist rule by Labour and Plaid Cymru have driven down Wales’ educational standards and are failing this generation of young people.
“Every child in Wales deserves an education that gives them the best possible start in life.
“Alarm bells must be ringing in the Welsh Government on the publication of these figures. The Welsh Government must set about improving standards in our classrooms, supporting teachers and making sure pupils get the skills they need to succeed.”
Skills
PISA, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), assesses how effectively 15-year-olds can apply their knowledge and skills in science, reading and mathematics to real-world problems.
A total of 3,406 learners from 113 schools in Wales completed the computer-based assessments in September and October 2025 as part of a study involving 91 education systems.
The report cautions that international and historical comparisons should be interpreted carefully because samples may not perfectly represent the populations taking part.
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A national disgrace. No more, no less. Welsh education was lauded in the 1950s etc. Now look at it. What have the various education ministers over the years (Neagle, Hutt etc) been doing since devolution and why are not being held to account? Why are they in other jobs, having failed so miserably? Extraordinary. We deserve answers as this slide has been going on and on for years.
Something something socialism. That’s all the Tories have now. No credible alternative solution, just performative sloganeering. No wonder they are tanking in the polls.
The stats are there. It is not a political issue. Our children are being sold down the river in a hugely hugely competitive international jobs market. This needs a generational, cross party, solution that involves Wales’s best minds, regardless of political persuasion. This cannot go on.
The new government are proposing changes, so I look forward to the other parties taking a constructive role in helping the improvements we all want.
With all due respect Alys this is a political issue. Theres a direct causal relationship between levels of educational attainment and economic well being (Britain’s top unis arent filled with the offspring of the wealthy because rich kids are innately more intelligent). Sadly we have an awful lot of poverty in Wales so it is perhaps not surprising we see results like this.
It was worse in the 1950s and our education was world class. There is no excuse for this consistent failure.
It wasnt worse in the 50s – in the first few decades after the second world war the Welsh economy grew. It was the devastation in Wales wrought by Thatcherism when things began to go into reverse (and continued by british govt’s ever since)
Exactly! They looked around the world to see what worked and what did not. Look at the success of Singapore, S Korea and Japan etc. What are they doing that England was not. Their decisions were based on that and not on cretinous Left/Right wing ideology. As a result, the English curriculum was changed from a skills based curriculum to a knowledge based curriculum. Since then their PISA ranking has soared, while Wales, Scotland and NI have plummeted. Here in Ireland we have a hybrid curriculum with heavy emphasis on knowledge. As a result Ireland’s children are also years ahead… Read more »
West Brit
Patronising and ill-informed crap.
Are you voting for your own comments multiple times?
The PISA report on counties of the United Kingdom says “made every effort to ensure that comparisons between countries and translations can be validly made. However, the cross and Interpreting country comparisons presented in this report should still be cautiously interpreted, especially when comparing countries with different languages”. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a9ea5415a0c25165ae469d9/pisa-2025-national-report-for-england.pdf At issue is that England has a higher proportion of ‘excluded pupils’ due to higher SEND/ALN cohort and schedule the tests at a different time of year (older 15yo rather than younger 15yo). All results have a 5% error margin which amounts to a value of around 20 in the scores… Read more »
It is a damning indictment. England is streets ahead.
Pitiful!
This has been a thorn in our side for far too long. Welsh Labour had 27 years in power to make a difference and failed—although, to be fair, Westminster policies are also a factor that must not be overlooked. Hopefully, with new impetus from the Plaid Cymru Welsh Government and the education minister, Anna Brychan, we can start making improvements now and deliver tangible change by the end of this Senedd. But what we do not need is Reform and Welsh Labour playing party politics with our children’s education; both they and our education system have suffered enough.
The trouble with this argument is that between 2003 and 2021, plaid basically agreed with everything that labour did. They even voted for most changes, even when a lib dem was education minister. In fact, the only things I can think that they disagreed upon were some of the changes that were being introduced into England, which they didn’t want to see in Wales – which are now some of the key reasons that England so far ahead. However I don’t think we should get into a who said, what said argument. We just need to see positive movements to… Read more »
The party that has pulled the strings on Education since 1997 is Labour; Plaid have never held that position under any agreement and can change little as a result. If there is no change by the next PISA test then feel free to blame Plaid but to blame them for Labour’s governing is ridiculous!
Because it was they who destroyed the support system of Welsh schools when they created 22! (For goodness’ sake!) tin-pot county councils incapable of ensuring their schools and teachers were properly monitored, supported and trained
Poor teacher/teaching quality.
Interesting that England is now second best performing country outside of Asia. Incredible change in performance, fair play.
Clear policy differences between England and wales and a consistent trend – and can’t keep making excuses like time of year the exam was done! We have so many quangos in Wales, what exactly are they all doing?
Interesting the English administration don’t publish data for their regions because that would put South East England top in the world. And North East England closer to Afghanistan.
So still higher than Wales🤣
Unlikely. More kids here got top GCSE grades than in five of the nine English regions. Most of England is worse.
Hahaha, haven’t you got anything better to do West Brit Shoneen.
Neither do we.
Or Germany, or anywhere else to that matter. That’s why its called a national survey
There’s a big difference between one result for a population of 3.1m and one for 56m that covers both the richest region in Europe and the poorest region in the UK, when everyone knows that wealth is linked to educational attainment. Spain, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and even Ukraine during a war manage to produce subnational data for their regions or states. In the US selective states pay to upscale their participation when they don’t want to hide behind US results.
Large parts of Wales are categorised as being among the poorest parts of Europe. You dont have to be a professor in sociology to know theres a link between levels of poverty and levels of educational attainment.
Levels of poverty which are a consequence of Wales historically being, and indeed continuing to be, the most marginalised and neglected part of the UK.
If this is the case, the 3 Cymru killer parties will really need to put their petty grievances to one side and support plaid in their votes.
At the moment Plaid could table a perfectly good solution and plan, and the Cymru killers will just vote against it because of their sour grapes.
Fair go to England. Hats off to them. Our government has had 27 years to do similar.
Ireland bettered England in reading. If we spent less time on a dead language we might have also beaten them in maths and science. Irish students are also years ahead of Welsh students in reading, maths and science. England uses a knowledge based curriculum, Ireland a hybrid system with a heavy emphasis on knowledge. Wales, Scotland and NI use a skills based curriculum. Maybe there’s a clue there as to why Wales, Scotland & NI have done badly and Ireland and England so well. Something to cconsider. But I do understand the Welsh Left are allergic to following anything England… Read more »
Spot on.
Yawn…..another bigoted brit nat that wants to exterminate the celtic languages. Btw it may interest you to know that the irish language is taught as a compulsory core subject in primary and secondary schools throughout the Republic of Ireland – being a supposed ‘Munster Fan’ i would’ve thought you’d know this?
With your regards to the comment dead language you obviously must realise that The Irish Language is a compulsory subject in Eirè
I do know this. Where have I said or indicated otherwise. I went to school in Kerry and university in Cork. I have a daughter, a neice and 3 first cousins who are teacher’s in primary and post primary. I have another 2 cousins who are/were lecturers at UCC and MTU. One retired as head of department several years ago. Non of them opted to teach Irish. All loathed it except one. A waste of time for the others. It’s only needed to get into university and the public service. After that, it’s forgotten. I haven’t needed to speak a… Read more »
Is that where you joined the Munster branch of UKIP/Reform, then? Honestly, what was the point of your independence and civil wars just to become English with funny little accents?
By the way, I’m guessing your PISA expertise didn’t cover long, complicated words like:
*niece
**teachers
***none
Nobody in Ireland calls Ireland Eirè. Nobody. It’s Ireland or The Republic of Ireland. And yes, most of us hated learning Irish. A complete waste of time. For all the good it did us, we might as well have learnt Swahili. Yes Ireland, as well as England, have done considerably better than Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland on the educational front. This success will be transferred into the economies of Ireland and England while the rest will increasingly lag further behind, supported by England and thankfully not by us. Why? That’s the difference between realistic centre right parties and dogmatic… Read more »
Or they gaslight and manipulate the data. If England had achieved an educational miracle and delivered similar results in their richest and poorest regions they’d be shouting from the rooftops. They aren’t because they haven’t. Therefore it’s fair to assume kids in the south east are so far ahead of those in the north east they’d cause an uprising if this data was revealed.
Now we see the anti-Welsh racism coming to the fore.
All students in Primary and Second Level schools are required to study Irish.
The discussion on how to improve Welsh education can be distilled into these two sides
Welsh nationalists- all Westminster fault, labours fault, the timing of the exam fault, excuses excuses etc
Everyone else – well actually England is doing rather well, let’s learn from them
If you want to make a sensible point, compare Wales with Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. It’s only comparisons with England that fail the rationality test.
Comparing Ireland to Wales and Scotland fails the rationality test. Irish Schools are years ahead Wales and Scotland. Ireland is comparable with England. Although 10 years ago, they too were years behind. The reforms implemented under the Tories mean that they are now neck and neck, with a slight advantage to England. Remarkable progress. No doubt by copying what Ireland are doing.
Ireland is 6m. Scotland is 5m. Wales is 3m. Northern Ireland is 2m. England is 56m. Spot the difference.
Test Welsh teachers to see if they are up to the mark.
Did a teacher break your heart?
Don’t be so immature.
Everybody has their hobby-horse; they blame everything but the real reason. If you look back to the last time Wales was competitive in test performance it was in the 1970s-1990s. The difference then was that schools across Wales on the whole had effective support systems, from the then existing 8 county councils. There were strong and effective advisory teams, experienced teacher-advisers who worked with and in schools, technology support, substantial, well-funded in-service courses, and effective monitoring of teaching and learning. Head-teachers had support from Council education departments in school and financial management. What happened in 1994-6? Westminster Tories reorganised local… Read more »
Forgot England. Learn from Ireland.
Wales is behind England in education and health. This is what happens when socialists run a country for decades. If Labour carry on in England we won’t be far behind.