Estonian teenagers remain among the best-performing students in the world, according to PISA 2025. Science? Excellent. Maths? Excellent. Problem-solving? Excellent. Reading? We need to talk…
The newly released PISA 2025 results place Estonia among the world’s top 10 education systems in every area tested. Estonian 15-year-olds ranked sixth in science, eighth in mathematics and reading, and seventh in the new computational problem-solving assessment among all 91 participating countries and economies. Among OECD countries, only Japan and South Korea performed better overall.
And in Europe? Estonia ranked first in science, first in mathematics and first in computational problem-solving, and second in reading, just one point behind Ireland.
If international education rankings were a school report, Estonia could reasonably take this one home, place it prominently on the fridge and demand cake.
What is PISA?
The OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment — mercifully shortened to PISA — tests 15-year-olds every three years. More than 760,000 students from 91 countries and economies participated in 2025; this included 6,304 students from 204 schools in Estonia. So when we say “in the world”, that’s the world according to PISA — not every country on Earth, but certainly a large enough classroom for Estonia to feel rather pleased with its report card.
PISA is not simply interested in whether students remembered what appeared on page 47 of their textbook. PISA looks at whether young people can apply what they know to real-life and unfamiliar problems, particularly in science, mathematics and reading. This year also introduced computational problem-solving, testing students’ ability to use digital tools to create knowledge and solve increasingly complex problems. We think Estonian teenagers rather enjoyed that challenge.
Estonia scored 527 points in science, placing sixth globally and at the top of Europe. Around 90% of Estonian students reached at least the basic proficiency level, compared with 74% across the OECD.
So far, somebody fetch that cake.
P.S. If you’re wondering what 527 is out of: nothing. PISA isn’t scored like a school test with a fixed maximum. The points sit on an international scale, so what matters is how students perform compared with their peers and with previous PISA years. It does have three digits, though. Very satisfying.
Mathematics produced another strong result: 508 points, eighth globally and first in Europe. Estonia also scored 541 points in computational problem-solving, seventh worldwide and first in Europe.
But put the cake down for a moment.
There are, however, somewhat less celebratory chapters in Estonia’s PISA report. Let’s talk about reading.
In reading, Estonia ranked eighth globally and second in Europe, with 83% of students reaching at least the basic proficiency level, compared with 69% across the OECD.
Internationally, that remains an excellent result. So why the worried faces? Yes, Estonians do have a certain fondness for first place — we can’t help ourselves. But that’s not why alarm bells are ringing. Keep reading.
Estonia’s reading score fell to 499 points — 12 points below 2022 and 24 points below 2018. Put simply, Estonia’s latest group of 15-year-olds recorded the country’s lowest reading result since Estonia joined PISA.
But Estonia isn’t alone here. Reading scores have been falling across the OECD too, dropping by 28 points between 2015 and 2025. And some of the skills slipping are exactly the ones we increasingly need in the age of AI: working out whether information can be trusted, connecting information from different sources, and understanding what we’ve actually read.
One finding deserves its own slightly uncomfortable spotlight. The proportion of Estonian students showing what researchers call “hasty reading” — reading quickly but getting the answer wrong — almost doubled between 2018 and 2025, reaching 9%. Experts point to students reading fewer longer texts and becoming more used to taking in information in short fragments (hey, social media!). In other words: slowing down and actually reading the thing properly remains annoyingly useful.
Unsurprisingly, Estonian students aren’t hiding from artificial intelligence. Some 58% said they use AI chatbots to help with learning at least once a week, compared with 46% across the OECD. Only 7% said they never or almost never used AI chatbots for any of the schoolwork tasks examined by PISA.
Perhaps more importantly, students are also being taught not to believe everything AI tells them. Some 73% said their schools teach them how to check AI-generated content, compared with 63% across the OECD. In other words, Estonia’s students aren’t simply learning with AI — they are also being taught to question it.
However, the report card has some red ink. PISA also points to problems that shouldn’t disappear beneath Estonia’s impressive rankings:
- Bullying remains a concern. Some 27% of Estonian students reported experiencing at least one form of bullying several times a month or more, compared with 20% across the OECD.
- Important gaps between students remain. One of the largest is linked to language background: students from Russian-language backgrounds scored 47 points lower in science than students whose home language was Estonian.
- More students are struggling at the lower end. Since 2015, the proportion of lower-performing students has risen by six percentage points in both reading and mathematics.
- Teacher shortages remain a serious pressure, although the situation has improved. Some 65% of students attended schools whose principals said teaching was hindered by a shortage of teaching staff, compared with 39% across the OECD. In 2022, the Estonian figure was 73%.
- Schools also reported shortages beyond people. Some 39% of students attended schools where principals said a lack of educational materials was hindering teaching; the same proportion were in schools reporting problems with physical infrastructure.
So this isn’t quite a story about Estonia winning education and everybody going home. It is perhaps a more interesting one: Estonian students remain among the world’s best, while the country is still willing to look closely at where its education system can do better and what needs attention next.
Now you may have your cake.
Perhaps the most useful lesson hiding among all those impressive rankings is wonderfully old-fashioned. Read carefully. Think about what you’ve read. Question the answer. (Even when AI gave it to you.)
Read more
Estonia remains among the world’s best education systems in PISA 2025 – but reading scores falll | Estonian World
Estonia ranks among top countries in latest PISA results | ERR
PISA 2025: Eesti õpilased on jätkuvalt Euroopa tipus | Haridus- ja Teadusministeerium (in Estonian)
PISA 2025 tulemuste kokkuvote (in Estonian)
Thank you
A big thank you to H.E. Jaan Reinhold and Kadri Linnas for sharing the information with us.
