Overview
- PISA 2025, released this week, found OECD average scores in reading, math and science at their lowest levels on record and reported typical losses of about 20 points across many systems.
- Mexico scored well below OECD averages with 388 in mathematics, 408 in reading and 414 in science, a decline from 2022 that critics link to recent policy changes such as the removal of national assessment tools.
- New national data in Peru show nearly 15% of 14–17 year olds are not studying, a group of more than 335,900 youths that raises dropout, informal work and social‑risk concerns.
- Coverage and analysts point to long‑running structural causes beyond the pandemic—uneven teacher quality and training, weak time‑on‑task, deep socioeconomic gaps and eroded assessment systems—rather than a single factor like phones or screens.
- Proposed responses range from local reassessments and tighter in‑class screen rules to multi‑decadal reforms: experts emphasize sustained funding, teacher professionalization, restored national diagnostics and cross‑party political commitment as prerequisites for reversal.