The results of thePISA 2025 international survey show that reading is the skill where the Italian fifteen year olds are better while the major criticality emerges in digital programming. The students of the Bel Paese are instead on average OECD in science and mathematics subjects and the percentage that reaches at least the level of basic skills is higher than the international average in all three areas analyzed by the survey.
For the first time, no significant differences emerge between males and females in average science scores, while girls continue to be better at reading, and boys at mathematics. Also social origin affects the resultsalbeit with some exceptions.
What is the PISA survey and what does it measure
Since 2000, theOECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) conducts periodically the PISA survey (Program for International Student Assessment) in order to evaluate, through a digital test lasting 2 hours, the skills of fifteen-year-old students from different countries around the world. This age was chosen because in many countries it coincides with the final phase of compulsory education, and was therefore considered the most suitable for understanding how well students know how to use what they learned at school to cope with the problems of adult life.
In the 2025 they participated more than 760 thousand students from 91 countries and economiesrepresenting approximately 33 million 15-year-olds worldwide.
Each edition of PISA delves into one of these in depth areas of expertise: science, mathematics and reading.
In 2025 the focus was on sciencewhile mathematics and reading were considered secondary areas. For the first time it was also introduced the evaluation of computational problem solving.
But what does it mean, concretely, to be competent in a certain area?
- Science: knowing how to deal with scientific questions and ideas and how to use them to make decisions;
- Mathematics: ability to reason mathematically and use mathematics to solve everyday problems;
- Reading: being able to understand a text, evaluate it and reflect on the information contained to develop new individual and social skills;
- Computational problem solving: knowing how to solve problems through iterative and self-regulated processes, also using digital tools.
Student results in Italy
Reading
There reading is the main strength of Italian studentswhose average score is significantly higher than the OECD average. In Italy The 76% of students reaches at least the level 2compared to 69% of the OECD average. In practice, this means that more than 3 out of 4 15-year-olds can identify the main idea of a moderate-length text, find information based on explicit criteria, and reflect on the intent or form of a text.
Only the 4% of Italian students instead it reaches the level 5 or highercompared to 6% of the OECD average. In other words, only a small share of students proved capable of understanding long and complex texts, managing abstract or counterintuitive concepts and distinguishing facts from opinions also using implicit clues.
These percentages therefore outline a particular situation: Italy has a share of students with basic skills above the OECD average, but one share relatively reduced Of excellent students.
The differences become even more evident when comparing schools. In high schools, 91% of students reach at least level 2while the percentage drops to 40% in professional institutes and 38% in professional training courses.
Science
As the main evaluation area of the 2025 edition, science occupies a central place in the report. The 78% of Italian students reach at least level 2compared to 74% of the OECD average. This means that more than 3 out of 4 students are able to identify the correct explanation of a known scientific phenomenon and to establish, in simple situations, whether a conclusion can be considered valid based on the data provided.
Even in this case, however, Italian students at the highest levels are relatively few. Only 4% reach level 5 or 6compared to 7% of the OECD average. The students who reach these levels are in fact only those who manage to apply their scientific knowledge autonomously and creatively to new and unfamiliar situations.
An interesting result then concerns the type of scientific skills possessed. In fact, Italian students show themselves particularly competent especially in evaluation of research designsan important skill especially for being able to critically evaluate a scientific experiment and its results.
Mathematics
In mathematics reaches at least level 2 the 69% of Italian studentscompared to 65% of the OECD average. At this level students are able, for example, to compare the distance of two alternative routes or convert a price from one currency to another.
Here too, however, if Italy manages to maintain a good share of students above the minimum threshold, it struggles more in the excellence range: only the 7% of Italian students reach levels 5 or 6compared to 8% of the OECD average. To reach these levels it is necessary to also be able to demonstrate the ability to transform complex situations into mathematical models and to be able to select, compare and evaluate different strategies to solve a problem.
Computational problem solving
One of the results less positive for Italy it comes from digital skills. In the new staircase dedicated to computational problem solvingthe international average score is set at 500 points. Italian students obtain 490 points, an achievement statistically lower than average international.
The data is particularly interesting because it shows that knowing how to use digital tools does not mean necessarily know solve problems through digital. In particular, the greater difficulty of Italian students seems to concern the programming.
Social origin and gender: how much do they matter?
The PISA survey also allows us to analyze the extent to which school results are associated with the socio-economic conditions of students. In Italy social origin continues to have a significant weightbut the picture is substantially in line with that observed on average in OECD countries and the data shows that the starting conditions they do not determine automatically The scholastic achievement.
However, gender differences change depending on the subject. In science, for the first time in 2025 the average scores of Italian girls and boys are substantially similar, even if the boys with the best results do better than the best girls. The situation changes in mathematics, where boys achieve better results than girls on average. The gap widens further when considering the highest performing students. In reading, however, girls achieve better results than boys. There is therefore no unique male or female “advantage”, but the differences depend on the competence being measured.
