Finland’s Pisa results expose a widening struggle with perseverance

Finland’s declining Pisa results show that the country has lost ground in mathematics, reading and science, Yle journalist Mari Vesanummi writes. Even students from advantaged families are no longer protected from the decline.

When Vesanummi interviewed national research director Arto K. Ahonen about the latest Pisa results, she initially questioned the study itself. The test does not affect a 15-year-old’s school grades, and teenagers may have little motivation to take it seriously because they are not paid for completing it.

However, the Pisa study also asks students about their motivation and attitudes. After the two-hour test, students are asked how seriously they answered and how hard they would have tried if the test had affected their grades.

According to Ahonen, the level of effort explained 14 percent of the variation in Finnish students’ science scores. The average share in other OECD countries was only 3 percent, and the proportion has increased in Finland compared with earlier assessments.

Only 41 percent of Finnish students said they would continue working on a task if they encountered difficulties. More than half therefore indicated that they would give up immediately, a result that could directly affect schoolwork and learning, Vesanummi writes.

Test data offered a more reassuring picture. Researchers compared the number of correct answers students gave during the first hour with the number they gave during the second hour. The difference was not significant. The initial Pisa results suggest that students’ low self-assessment of their perseverance was not reflected in the test situation. The responses may therefore reflect Finnish modesty rather than a lack of grit.

Finland still performs above the OECD average in all three main Pisa subjects: mathematics, reading and science. Its lead has nevertheless narrowed sharply. In science, Finland’s advantage over the OECD average was once 63 points. By 2015, it had fallen to 38 points, and in the 2025 assessment it was only 22 points.

Finland’s performance has fallen more over the past decade than that of most OECD countries. Differences in learning outcomes between schools have reached a record level, while reading skills continue to decline.

Teachers say changes in education and learning materials may have contributed. In primary schools, environmental studies combined physics, chemistry, biology, geography and health education into a single subject about a decade ago. Vesa Suomalainen, a biology and geography teacher at Tesoma School in Tampere, said the basic knowledge of new seventh-grade students in these subjects had clearly weakened since the change.

In Tampere, environmental studies are taught using only digital learning materials. Suomalainen said this could also help explain the decline in skills. Many talented young people who apply to a science and mathematics programme prefer using a pen and notebook, he said.

A ban on phones introduced in autumn 2025 is not yet visible in Finland’s results. The ban should not be expected to solve the problem on its own, however, as Pisa comparisons of phone restrictions in other countries have produced contradictory results.

The latest assessment also showed that a strong socioeconomic background no longer protects students from declining performance. The decline was particularly pronounced among students in the highest socioeconomic quarter. Ahonen said one possible explanation was that students in the lowest quarter were already performing at such a low level that their results could not fall much further.