Pisa results: what they tell us about reading standards in Welsh schools – and what they don’t

By Manon Jones, Professor in Psychology / Director of Research, Bangor University
Cameron Downing, Lecturer in Psychology in Education, University of York

School pupils in Wales are falling behind in reading according to the latest international data.

The 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) is run by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and compares the educational skills of 15-year-olds around the world every three years.

In 2025, 15-year-olds in Wales achieved an average reading score of 459, not hugely different from the OECD average of 461. But Wales remained significantly below England (497), Scotland…

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