The latest results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are due on Tuesday, September 8, providing a fresh assessment of how 15-year-old students are performing in key areas of learning across education systems worldwide. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), more than 760,000 students in 91 countries and economies took part in the 2025 assessment, making it the largest PISA cycle since the programme began in 2000. The results will cover science, reading and mathematics. The 2025 cycle also introduces new evidence on learning in a digital world, including computational problem-solving and students’ use of artificial intelligence for schoolwork. Eight African countries have formally engaged with the global PISA programme or its specialised development extension: Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Zambia. What is PISA? PISA is an international assessment coordinated by the OECD to measure what 15-year-old students know and how well they can apply their knowledge to real-life situations. Unlike tests that mainly assess whether students have mastered specific parts of a national curriculum, PISA focuses on whether learners can use knowledge to reason, solve problems and respond to unfamiliar situations. The assessment was first conducted in 2000 and has since become one of the major international benchmarks for comparing education systems. Following the 2025 cycle, PISA will move from its previous three-year cycle to a four-year cycle. ALSO READ: NESA launches awareness campaign ahead of international student assessment What does PISA 2025 measure? Science is the main subject area assessed in the 2025 cycle, alongside reading and mathematics. According to the OECD, the science assessment goes beyond recalling scientific facts. It examines students’ ability to evaluate evidence, assess the credibility of information and use scientific knowledge to make informed decisions. The 2025 assessment also introduces Learning in the Digital World, a new domain examining students’ computational problem-solving skills and their ability to manage their own learning while working with digital tools. This is particularly relevant as technology and artificial intelligence become increasingly present in education and everyday life. PISA also collects information about students’ learning experiences, attitudes and home environments, while school leaders provide information about their schools and learning conditions. National examinations are generally linked to a country’s curriculum and assess whether students have achieved specific learning requirements at particular stages of education. PISA serves a different purpose. By assessing students using a common international framework, it allows education systems to compare their performance with others and identify areas that may require attention. The international comparison gives policymakers another way of examining the effectiveness of their education systems. ALSO READ: Where Rwanda’s education sector stands in 2026 PISA looks beyond test scores The OECD does not examine students’ scores in isolation. Alongside academic performance, PISA collects information on factors that can influence learning, including students’ socio-economic and immigrant backgrounds. It also considers students’ attitudes towards learning, including curiosity, perseverance and learner agency. The assessment looks at the wider school environment, including students’ sense of belonging, school safety, bullying and the disciplinary climate. Other factors include parental and teacher support, access to learning resources, availability of teaching staff and schools’ readiness for digital learning. This broader information can help countries examine not only how students are performing, but also the circumstances surrounding those results. Why does PISA matter? According to the OECD, PISA helps countries assess whether young people are developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to participate effectively in societies and economies that are constantly changing. Its importance also comes from its ability to provide comparable evidence over time. By taking part in successive PISA cycles, countries can assess whether performance is improving, identify persistent gaps and examine whether education policies are producing the desired outcomes. The 2025 assessment comes at an important moment as digital technologies and artificial intelligence change how students access information, complete schoolwork and learn. For the first time, PISA is collecting evidence on students’ use of AI for schoolwork, while also examining their ability to learn independently and adapt their approaches to learning. What can countries learn from the results? The significance of PISA extends beyond the position a country occupies in an international ranking. The results can help governments identify strengths and weaknesses in their education systems and examine differences in outcomes between groups of students. They can also provide evidence for broader questions: whether students are acquiring skills that remain useful beyond school, whether learning environments support them effectively, and whether education systems are preparing them for changing social and economic conditions. The value of PISA ultimately lies in what education systems do with the evidence. ALSO READ: Why Rwanda is reforming education system What Rwanda hopes to learn from the results For Rwanda, the value of its first PISA participation will be in what the results reveal about the education system and what can be done with that evidence. Education Minister Joseph Nsengimana said the assessment will allow Rwanda to measure its progress against countries it aspires to match and identify areas that require more attention. “As we cross, going 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.” He said a representative sample of about 7,000 15-year-olds, drawn from different settings including rural and urban areas and public and private schools, will provide a broader picture of the education system. “Because it's sampled that way, it is able to give us a picture of the situation in the whole system.” Nsengimana said the results will be considered alongside Rwanda’s LARS findings to determine where interventions are needed, including teacher quality, curriculum implementation and assessment. He said Rwanda will also be interested in whether the relatively small rural-urban performance differences observed in LARS are reflected in PISA, particularly following investments in technology such as laptops and smart laboratories. “Rwanda is actually doing very well when it comes to providing the same kind of equitable education across the country. Doing far better than most countries. That is what we have seen in the national assessment. It would be interesting to see if we see the same in PISA.” Rather than treating the results as a scorecard, Nsengimana said the ministry wants them to expose weaknesses that can then be addressed openly. “We want to find problems. We want to see where we are struggling, because we cannot address something we do not see.” An opportunity for African education systems For Epimaque Niyibizi, Dean of the School of Languages and Social Sciences Education at the University of Rwanda’s College of Education, the wider importance of PISA is that benchmarking can show whether education policies and practices are delivering the expected results. “It will reveal where we stand. Not simply for the sake of comparing ourselves ... but simply to check whether what we are doing is in the right direction vis-a-vis what other people are doing, and where we probably have gaps.” He also sees value in greater African participation, saying countries can use the programme to strengthen efforts to improve education quality at national and continental levels. “Of course, it is within the context of improving the quality of education at country level, at the continental level, and worldwide. This is one of the best ways to assess the education system at the continental level.” Niyibizi said he will be particularly interested in reading the findings and what they reveal across different languages and learning contexts.
