Declining academic achievement in high-income countries threatens their economies' skills
Recent results from a global standardized test reveal a notable decline in academic achievement among students in high-income countries, coinciding with a drop in parental engagement in their children’s education and a growing impact of digital distractions. These indicators raise questions about the future of human capital quality and the skills needed to support advanced economies.
NBC News reported that more than 760,000 15-year-old students from dozens of countries and economies participated last year in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), overseen by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The results, announced last Tuesday, showed that average student scores in mathematics, reading, and science reached their lowest levels in the history of the assessment among advanced economies, with continued declines in reading and mathematics scores in the United States.
According to the report, one factor associated with the decline in achievement may be reduced parental involvement in education. Most countries saw a decrease in family engagement in their children’s education compared to 2022, with the decline being more pronounced among boys. This indicator is based on the extent to which parents communicate with their children about schoolwork and show interest in what they are learning.
NBC News quoted Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education and Skills at the OECD, as saying that parents increasingly view themselves as customers of the school rather than showing personal and direct interest in their children’s learning.
The data highlighted the importance of this factor: students who reported that a family member asked them at least once a week about what they did at school scored approximately 35 points higher on the science test compared to those receiving less family attention. This difference equates to more than a year and a half of learning, after accounting for socioeconomic differences.
Another aspect of the decline in achievement is linked to the increased use of digital devices in schools. More than a quarter of students in high-income countries reported that their peers are distracted by digital devices during most or all science lessons. Meanwhile, countries implementing stricter policies to limit mobile phone use in schools recorded lower levels of distraction.
Schleicher noted a strong correlation between the use of digital devices for entertainment and lower test scores, while the relationship appears more complex when technology is used for educational purposes. Students who used digital devices in school for between two and three hours daily scored higher, before scores began to decline beyond this level.
Asian countries also stand out in this regard; less than 10% of participating students in Japan, Korea, and mainland China reported experiencing digital distractions in the classroom.
At the same time, Asian economies dominated the top 10 rankings in mathematics, science, and reading, with Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and several Chinese regions leading the results.
The data reveal a significant gap in basic educational skills. Nearly 100% of students in Chinese regions scored at or above the baseline level in mathematics and reading, compared to
NBC News quoted Tracy Burns, Head of Global Strategy and Research at the National Center for Education and the Economy, warning that China’s educational superiority over the United States carries economic and political implications. She explained that competition in technological fields requires a workforce with strong skills in science, technology, and reading.
In the United States, mathematics results were close to the OECD average, while the country ranked among the top 15 in science, reading, and computational problem-solving, a category recently added to the assessment.
However, the United States’ retention of a high ranking partly reflects the declining performance of other countries. Meanwhile, American students’ scores in reading and mathematics have fallen to their lowest levels since the PISA tests began in the early 2000s. Researchers also cautioned against interpreting some U.S. results with excessive confidence, given insufficient standards regarding the sample size of participating schools and students.
Regarding artificial intelligence, the results showed that intensive use of chatbots was generally associated with lower test scores. Students who reported not using chatbots performed better than those who did, even though about half of students in advanced economies said they use these tools weekly to aid their learning.
In contrast, Schleicher noted that countries such as China, Japan, Singapore, and Estonia appear more successful in leveraging artificial intelligence to support the educational process without overusing it. Teachers in several Asian countries also play a larger role in designing how AI systems are used in the classroom.
Overall, these findings suggest that educational excellence is not linked to technology alone, but to how it is integrated into the educational process, alongside the strength of curricula, the role of teachers, and family involvement. Some Asian experiences show that the latest technologies can coexist with traditional teaching methods; Schleicher described some Chinese classrooms as appearing, in their use of ink and brushes for calligraphy instruction, to belong to the 1950s, yet the entire educational process is simultaneously supported by artificial intelligence.
