New Pisa shock: German pupils worse than ever before

Education - New Pisa shock: German pupils worse than ever before

German pupils performed worse than ever before in the international Pisa performance study in 2022. Both in reading and in mathematics and science, these are the lowest values ever measured for Germany in the Pisa study. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Berlin announced that the average performance had also fallen drastically internationally. This is the first Pisa report since the coronavirus pandemic.

German pupils performed particularly badly in mathematics. They achieved a score of 475, compared to 500 in the previous study published in 2019. They scored 480 in reading (2019: 498) and 492 in science (2019: 503).

Pisa stands for "Programme for International Student Assessment" and is the largest international school performance comparison study. It measures the skills of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science. It has been carried out every three years since 2000.

Unprecedented drop in performance

The first comparative study caused a "Pisa shock" at the time: German 15-year-olds performed extremely poorly and there was also a close correlation between social background and educational opportunities in the Pisa report. The result was a fierce debate on education. The results then improved significantly, but there was a downward trend in the last Pisa rounds.

In the current survey, Germany is still close to the OECD average in mathematics and reading literacy and above the OECD average in science, but this is no reason to breathe a sigh of relief. According to the experts, it is not only the situation in Germany that is worrying: this cycle has seen an unprecedented drop in performance, the report states. "Compared to 2018, the average performance in OECD countries fell by 10 points in reading and almost 15 points in mathematics." The latter is almost three times the rate of all consecutive changes.

According to the OECD, this decline is particularly pronounced in a handful of countries - including Germany. Poland, Norway, Iceland and Germany, for example, recorded a decline of 25 or more points in math between 2018 and 2022. "The dramatic decline in math and reading scores points to a negative shock affecting many countries simultaneously," the paper states.

Negative corona effect

The authors of the study see the coronavirus pandemic as one of the reasons for the poor performance of German pupils. The results show that the school closures had a negative effect on the acquisition of skills. In Germany, distance learning was taught less with digital media and more with materials sent to young people than the OECD average.

"In an international comparison, Germany was not well prepared for distance learning in terms of equipment with digital devices - but then caught up," said study director Doris Lewalter, education researcher at TUM and Chair of the ZIB Board. However, the evaluation of the international data shows that there is no systematic correlation between the duration of school closures and declines in performance between 2018 and 2022.

Lack of language skills also responsible

Another possible factor for the results is a lack of language skills. "One key reason is certainly that we have still not managed to ensure early language support for all those who need it," said Lewalter. "If we have pupils with a migrant background, we cannot assume that they have already mastered the German language of education when they come to Germany."

It takes a long time to have such a solid language education that children and young people can not only communicate, but also follow the lessons. This is also important for mathematics, for example, in order to understand a task at all.

However, this finding only partially explains the overall results, the researcher emphasized. "The mathematical skills of young people without a migrant background have also decreased compared to 2012 - even more so than those of young people whose parents immigrated but who were born in Germany."

The authors of the study also pointed out that only very few OECD countries were able to improve parts of their results between 2018 and 2022, for example Japan in reading and science and Italy, Ireland and Latvia in science. In mathematics, young people in Japan and Korea had the highest average skills. In reading, Ireland, Japan, Korea and Estonia were at the top. In science, Japan, Korea, Estonia and Canada achieved the best results.