This year Lithuania surpassed the OECD average and rose from 20th to 12th place in Europe based on the average results in science, mathematics, and reading, but not due to better results of its own, rather because the results of other countries declined more.
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At the same time, the results of other European countries also changed. Estonia remains the strongest education system in Europe, ranking 1st, Poland 5th, Finland 6th, Lithuania 12th, and Latvia 26th. Lithuania’s gap from Estonia has hardly changed over three years; we are still behind by up to two years of learning in all areas.
Asian education systems dominate the world top five. Based on the average results of the three areas, the highest results were achieved by students from four Chinese regions – Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Next are Singapore, Taiwan, Macau, and Japan. Estonia ranks 7th in the world by this indicator.
According to Laura Tilvytė, head of the organization “Education #1,” comparing countries’ results shows only part of the picture of Lithuanian education.
“Although Lithuania rose a few places in Europe based on the overall average results, this is not a breakthrough. We moved up mainly because the results of other countries declined more, not because our students’ abilities improved,” says L. Tilvytė.
OECD PISA results show that since 2022, the overall results of Lithuanian fifteen-year-olds have worsened. Reading skills declined the most, dropping by 8 points, math skills worsened by 5 points, while science shows a slight improvement of 3 points.
“The greatest concern today is reading: more than one in four Lithuanian fifteen-year-olds does not reach the basic level. This is not just a Lithuanian language problem. If a student has difficulty understanding a text, selecting the most important information, or evaluating what they have read, it is harder for them to learn math, science, and other subjects. Therefore, weakening reading skills are a signal to the entire education system,” says L. Tilvytė.
Results fluctuated, but no breakthrough occurred
Longer-term results also do not show clear progress. Since 2006, the level of abilities of Lithuanian fifteen-year-olds has essentially changed little: in some years results rose or fell, but no long-term breakthrough was achieved in any of the three main areas. The science result today is essentially the same as nearly two decades ago – in both 2006 and 2025 it was 488 points. The reading result decreased from 470 to 464 points, and math from 486 to 470 points.
Over nearly two decades, no breakthrough occurred among the weakest and strongest students either. During this period, the proportion of the weakest and strongest students in science hardly changed. In reading, the number of weakest students increased, while the strongest slightly decreased. The most notable negative change is seen in math: the share of students not reaching the basic level rose from 23 to 28.7%, while those achieving the highest results decreased from 9.1 to 6%.
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According to L. Tilvytė, the long-term picture shows that a breakthrough was not achieved.
“The fact that students’ results have hardly changed over so many years shows that we have not done enough so far for progress to be long-lasting. Although science results have slightly improved since 2022, in the longer term we do not see a breakthrough – reading and math skills have weakened over nearly 20 years,” says L. Tilvytė.
The influence of family environment on students’ results has decreased over nearly 20 years
One of the most important good news in the latest PISA study is the reduced gap between Lithuanian students growing up in more favorable and less favorable environments. In 2022, their science skills differed by more than four years of learning, and in 2025 by about three years. So in just three years, the gap decreased by more than one year of learning. In Lithuania, it is now smaller than the OECD average, where it is more than four years of learning, and smaller than in Estonia, where it is about three and a half years.
This is not just a change of the last three years. A longer PISA data perspective shows the same trend: from 2015 to 2025, the science results of Lithuanian children growing up in less favorable environments improved, while those growing up in more favorable environments essentially did not change.
At the same time, these data show a broader two-decade change – the family environment has less and less influence on Lithuanian students’ results. In 2006, a student’s economic, social, and cultural environment explained about 15% of the differences in science results, and in 2025 about 8%. Simply put, family circumstances are still important, but today they determine much less how a child will succeed in learning.
“Over nearly 20 years, the influence of the family environment on Lithuanian students’ results has decreased by almost half. This is important progress, but our goal must be not only to reduce the gap but also to raise the results of all students,” says L. Tilvytė.
Students’ results are worsening in many countries worldwide
Lithuania’s situation is not unique. According to PISA 2025 data, reading and math results in OECD countries have dropped to the lowest level since the study began in 2000. Already one in five fifteen-year-olds in OECD countries does not reach the basic level in all three main areas.
OECD associates the decline with multiple reasons – among them weakening student attention and engagement, less frequent reading for pleasure, fragmented information consumption, and decreasing family support for learning. The study also shows that family support has decreased since 2022.
Children’s results are influenced not only by what happens in the classroom. Better results are also contributed to by parents’ interest in the child’s learning – sometimes a simple question is enough: “How was school for you today?” According to OECD data, students whose parents ask at least once a week what they did at school score on average 26 points higher in science – equivalent to about 1.3 years of schooling difference,” says L. Tilvytė.
