German students post lowest PISA scores on record as mathematics falls to 464 points

Record declines across all subjects

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released its latest Programme for International Student Assessment results on Tuesday, assessing more than 760,000 15-year-old students across 91 countries and regions. In Germany, testing conducted in April and May 2025 across 246 schools with nearly 6,700 participants showed performance falling to the lowest level since the test began in 2000. Students in Germany averaged 486 points in science, 465 points in reading, and 464 points in mathematics. Science represented the main focus area of the latest evaluation cycle, but all three subjects continued a downward trajectory that began after 2012. By comparison, students in Japan achieved averages of 538 points in science, 503 points in reading, and 525 points in mathematics. While German results remained near the OECD average and slightly above the European Union average, they fell well behind peers such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Estonia.

Widening gaps in basic competencies

Researchers from the Technical University of Munich identified an expanding proportion of students who lack foundational competencies required for vocational training and social participation. Roughly one in three 15-year-olds failed to reach basic proficiency in reading and mathematics, while one in four fell below the baseline in science. Approximately one-fifth of German students lacked basic competencies in all three tested disciplines simultaneously, a share that has doubled in reading and mathematics since 2015. Over the same ten-year period, the proportion of low-performing students expanded by 17 percentage points in mathematics, 15 percentage points in reading, and 10 percentage points in science. Study leader Samuel Greiff emphasized that educational trajectories remain modifiable despite the prolonged decline.

The good news here is that the negative trend is neither fate nor a law of nature. Education systems can change.

Economic costs and school pressures

The educational shortfall carries long-term consequences for national productivity and workforce capacity. Ludger Wößmann, head of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, calculated for the Bertelsmann Foundation that improving school performance could generate nearly 21 trillion euros in additional German gross domestic product over an 80-year horizon. Wößmann noted that the score drop compared to the 2022 test translates into an average three to four percent loss in future earned income. Data from the Federal Statistical Office shows that workers without vocational credentials earn an average of 3,432 euros gross per month, compared to 4,784 euros for those with a vocational qualification. In Berlin, teacher Jotam Felmy pointed to pupil mental health and home pressure as factors influencing classroom performance.

Those who suffer inside can hardly achieve good results. Those who achieve poor results often suffer because of it.

Political calls for an education summit

Federal and state policymakers reacted swiftly to the findings on Tuesday. Federal Minister of Education Karin Prien called the results worrying, while Lower Saxony Minister of Education Julia Willie Hamburg noted that educational success remains excessively tied to parental background and requires sustained reform. Stefan Störmer, Lower Saxony state chairman of the GEW education union, pointed to teacher shortages, large class sizes, and an investment backlog across schools. In the German Bundestag, the Social Democratic Party parliamentary group urged the federal government to initiate a coordinated response across governance levels. SPD deputy parliamentary leader Dagmar Schmidt stated that federal structures must not delay necessary reforms.

Following these results, we cannot simply proceed to business as usual. We expect Federal Education Minister Karin Prien to take the initiative now. Germany needs an education summit of federal, state, and local governments.