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The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia has said that preparations for the PISA study have been underway since 2022.
In March-May 2025, around 7,000 students from 295 schools in Armenia participated in the assessment by completing tests prepared according to the relevant methodology.
The PISA study is conducted once every four years. The next assessment will be held in 2029.
“PISA results are an important starting point for assessing the impact of the content of the standards. It is important to note that the students who participated in the assessment were mainly educated under the previous general education standards. In this sense, the results obtained can be viewed as baseline data that can later be compared with the results recorded after the introduction of the new standards and the other ongoing reforms, allowing the dynamics of education quality to be assessed,” the ministry said in a press release.
Armenian 15-year-olds performed below the international average in mathematics, science and reading, trailing their regional counterparts in the latest assessment.
“Almost all the problems identified by the study have already been addressed in the state policy for the education sector, and relevant steps are being taken to improve them. The results are certainly not satisfactory: they point to problems, while the ongoing reforms are aimed at having a higher-quality education system. The PISA 2025 data also indicate a decline in educational outcomes globally, which is particularly noticeable in reading and mathematics. In Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, average scores have declined by more than 20 points over the past decade, which is assessed as a difference equivalent to the loss of one school year of learning. The study’s results highlight a number of factors affecting students’ achievement, ranging from teacher and parental support to the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. The results of the study should be analyzed in detail and become a subject of professional discussion among teachers, principals, experts and decision-makers, with the aim of improving future policies and actions. Professional opinion and criticism are a direct path to the system’s recovery, but it is more important that the discussion not turn from a professional conversation into manipulation,” the ministry added.