Iceland records widest PISA science gap by student background

Students of foreign origin in Iceland scored significantly lower in science than students with Icelandic parents, according to an OECD report published Tuesday and reported by mbl.is.

The report analyses the science performance of 15-year-old students who took the PISA assessment in spring 2025. Students of foreign origin scored an average of 390 points, compared with 455 points among students whose parents are Icelandic. The OECD average was 497 points.

After adjusting for the students’ social and economic backgrounds, those of foreign origin still scored an average of 40 points lower in science than their peers with Icelandic parents.

The OECD said that the more diverse composition of student populations resulting from increased immigration explained only a few points of the decline seen in many countries. It therefore could not be identified as the main cause.

The report also said the 2025 PISA results did not support claims that a higher proportion of students of foreign origin was linked to poorer overall performance. On the contrary, the assessment found that a higher share of students of foreign origin corresponded, on average, with better science performance.

In most countries, the performance gap between students of domestic and foreign origin remained unchanged between 2022 and 2025 in science. The gap widened significantly only in Iceland, Portugal and Spain.

The 2022 PISA results showed a substantial gap of more than 60 points between students of Icelandic and foreign origin in reading comprehension. No similar gap was found in science at that time.

Experts in Icelandic and teaching, including literacy researcher Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, have repeatedly stressed the importance of teaching the children of immigrants Icelandic systematically from an early age. They have said that progress in almost all school subjects is closely connected to developing proficiency in the language used at school.