Estonia among world's top performers in latest PISA results, but reading literacy keeps declining
Estonia ranked third among OECD countries in the newest PISA assessment, behind only Japan and South Korea, though education officials warn that functional reading literacy has been slipping for years.
The latest round of PISA testing shows Estonia's 15-year-olds remain among the strongest performers worldwide, even as education experts flag a persistent long-term decline in reading skills.
The OECD runs PISA assessments every three years to measure the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds, with Estonia's tests mostly taken by ninth-graders. Unlike conventional school exams, PISA does not check mastery of a national curriculum but instead measures how well young people can apply what they've learned in mathematics, science and functional reading to real-world situations. This cycle, for the first time, OECD experts also assessed computational problem-solving skills.
Among OECD member countries, only Japan (538 points) outscored Estonia (527 points) in science. In mathematics, Estonia (508 points) trailed Japan (525) and South Korea (522). In functional reading literacy, Estonia (499 points) came in behind Japan (503), South Korea (501) and Ireland (500). In the newly introduced computational problem-solving category, only Japan (557 points) beat Estonia's 541 points.
When non-OECD participants such as Singapore are factored in, along with China's special administrative regions counted separately, Estonia ranks 6th in science, 8th in both mathematics and reading literacy, and 7th in computational problem-solving.
Reading literacy concerns
Gunda Tire, head of international studies at Estonia's Education and Youth Board (Harno), called the results a cause for celebration given Estonia's strong standing compared with other countries. At the same time, she cautioned that PISA scores have declined globally over the past decade, and while Estonia's drop has been less steep, the country's best-ever results were actually recorded in 2018.
Estonian students have taken part in PISA testing since 2006 and the country is widely regarded as a global example in education. In the 2022 round, only students from Singapore, Japan and South Korea, along with certain Chinese special administrative regions, scored higher than their Estonian peers.
