Rwanda will on Tuesday, September 8, receive its first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), giving the country an international benchmark of how its 15-year-old learners perform in reading, mathematics and science.

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The results will show how Rwanda’s learners compare with their peers in countries and economies taking part in the 2025 assessment.

More than 760,000 learners from 91 countries and economies participated in the 2025 assessment, making it the largest PISA cycle so far. The results will also provide insights into computational problem-solving, students’ use of artificial intelligence for schoolwork, and attitudes such as curiosity, perseverance and learner agency.

Organised every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), PISA assesses whether 15-year-olds can apply what they have learned to unfamiliar, real-world situations, rather than simply recall information.

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Rwanda participated in the 2025 cycle for the first time, with the assessment conducted between April 28 and June 7, 2025. A total of 7,455 students from 213 schools across the country took part in it.

Other African countries that participated in the 2025 cycle are Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco and Zambia. Rwanda and Kenya were first-time participants, while Mauritius returned to PISA after its earlier participation in 2009. Morocco and Egypt had participated in previous cycles.

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Why Rwanda chose an international benchmark

Rwanda’s decision to join PISA comes as the country shifts its focus from expanding access to education towards improving the quality of learning.

Speaking to The New Times, Education Minister Joseph Nsengimana said the assessment gives Rwanda an opportunity to see how its education system compares with other countries.

"As we move from access to quality, we need to be able to measure ourselves against others to understand how we are doing in the world, especially the countries we aspire to be like,” Nsengimana said.

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Unlike national examinations, PISA selects a sample of 15-year-olds across different school settings, including rural and urban areas and public and private schools. According to the minister, the sample is designed to reflect the wider education system, meaning the performance of the selected students can provide an indication of the situation nationally.

The approach is particularly relevant to Rwanda as it seeks to assess whether learners are able to use knowledge beyond the classroom.

"It is not about the number of years that you are going to school. It is the quality of learning that you are getting out of it and how you apply what you learn in real life,” Nsengimana said.

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Results expected to guide education reforms

The results will be examined alongside findings from the Learning Achievement in Rwandan Schools (LARS) assessments to give the ministry a broader picture of where learners are performing well and where more attention is needed.

Nsengimana said the findings could also help establish whether challenges lie in the curriculum itself or in how it is taught and assessed.

"We need to understand the results, and we need to identify problems; what is causing the challenges we still face, so that we can address them,” he said.

"We do not want to prejudge, but it could be that you do not need to change the curriculum, but how you are applying the curriculum.”

He said the ministry will examine the findings in relation to reforms already underway, including efforts to improve teacher quality, change the curriculum and introduce co-curricular activities.

The assessment could also provide a clearer picture of how learners perform across different parts of the country. While national assessments have indicated relatively small differences between rural and urban schools, the minister said the PISA results would provide an opportunity to see whether that pattern is reflected internationally.

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First results will set a baseline

Nsengimana said Rwanda should not approach its first PISA results primarily as a question of ranking.

He expects the country to perform poorly compared with the global average, noting that previous LARS findings have already provided an indication of some of the challenges that could emerge.

Instead, he said the ministry is looking to use the first results to establish where Rwanda stands and determine what should be done before the next assessment.

"I am more looking to learning from the results. I need to find out how we did and what areas we can improve upon. We need to work as a team to define how we incorporate the lessons, whatever we learned, into how we are conducting the education,” he said.

"We really do not want to hide problems; we want to find problems. We want to see where we are struggling, because we cannot address something we do not see.”

Rwanda has already committed to participate in the next PISA cycle in 2029. It will also conduct another LARS assessment in 2028, with targets of reaching at least 50 per cent comprehension in English and 65 per cent in Kinyarwanda.