Finnish students’ reading skills fall as affluent pupils lose ground

Finnish students’ performance has continued to decline in the latest PISA assessment, with reading skills falling particularly sharply, Yle reports. The decline is now greatest among children from socioeconomically well-off families, who previously performed best.

The reasons for the change are not yet known. Arto K. Ahonen, Finland’s national research director for PISA, said higher family socioeconomic status had previously been thought to protect students’ performance from falling.

“This time, that was no longer the case either,” Ahonen said.

The main subject in the 2025 PISA assessment was science. Finnish students still performed above the OECD average, ranking 12th among 91 participating countries and economies. Finland had the highest science score among the Nordic countries.

The PSJZ area of China, comprising Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, ranked first. Five other East Asian countries or economies followed. Estonia, Canada and the United Kingdom also outperformed Finland, while New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Switzerland and Ireland scored at a similar level.

Finland’s science result did not fall by a statistically significant amount from the previous assessment three years earlier, but the longer-term decline is clear.

Mathematics and reading are assessed in every PISA round, even though the main subject changes between science, mathematics and reading. Finnish students’ mathematics skills remain above the OECD average, but the decline is continuing. Finland ranked joint 22nd in mathematics with Slovakia.

In reading, Finnish students ranked joint 17th with Italy. Ahonen said the sharp decline in reading was the biggest surprise in the latest results.

He said the decline in print reading could be one factor. Reading skills are also important in other PISA subjects because they are needed to understand the tasks.

Only 41 percent of Finnish students said they try harder when a task feels difficult, according to the summary of the results. A lack of persistence was identified alongside reduced print reading as a possible explanation for the decline.

The 2025 assessment also examined digital learning, in which Finnish teenagers performed above the OECD average. Finland took part for the first time in an assessment of English as a foreign language; those results will be released next spring.

More than 10,000 15-year-old lower secondary school students from about 240 schools in Finland took part in the assessment in spring 2025.

The study also measured students’ confidence in their ability to complete tasks. Among countries with similar education systems, including the Nordic countries, Estonia and OECD countries, only Norwegian students had greater confidence in their own abilities than Finnish students.