Danish 15-year-olds post record-low PISA results

Danish 15-year-olds have recorded their weakest-ever results in reading, mathematics and science, while more students report arriving late and skipping school, according to new PISA findings reported by DR.

The international assessment shows a marked decline in Danish students’ performance, particularly since 2015. Between one in three and one in four students are now classified as low performers.

“We know from other studies that something is currently happening to students’ skills, but we have been somewhat surprised by how large a decline we have seen in this round,” said Vibeke Tornhøj Christensen, a senior researcher at VIVE.

Reading showed the sharpest drop. Students with weaker results may struggle to extract information from anything other than a simple text, combine several pieces of information and use what they have read, Tornhøj Christensen said.

“It can make it more difficult to function in society and simply use the knowledge you have,” she said.

Gordon Ørskov Madsen, chairman of the Danish Union of Teachers, said the results had deeply affected him.

“This is a disaster happening almost in slow motion. We have seen for a long time that students’ academic results are declining, so I am really, really affected by this,” he said.

Andreas Rasch-Christensen, research director at VIA University College and a member of the steering group for Denmark’s PISA consortium, called the results worrying. He said the findings, combined with similar trends in other education studies, suggested that Denmark’s primary and lower-secondary school system was facing an academic crisis.

Results have also declined in many other countries, including the Nordic countries with which Denmark is normally compared. However, Denmark recorded the largest drop in the Nordic region since the previous PISA assessment in 2022.

Rasch-Christensen said the results did not show that students were becoming less intelligent. Instead, he said, they had different circumstances, including greater focus on social media and occasional difficulties with motivation and concentration.

Teachers report that many students have special needs and struggle to find calm and concentrate in class, Ørskov Madsen said. This often means lessons become a matter of dealing with immediate problems rather than improving academic performance, he said.

The assessment also asked students about their school attendance. Sixty per cent said they had been late at least once during the previous two weeks, while 28 per cent said they had skipped an entire school day during the same period.

“I think that is an alarming result,” Rasch-Christensen said. He called for more thorough discussions with students and their parents about what attending school means, describing it as unacceptable for students to simply disengage from school.

About the PISA assessment

PISA is an international assessment conducted every three years. It tests 15-year-old students in mathematics, reading and science, and asks them about their background, wellbeing and school environment.

In Denmark, 6,200 students from 283 schools and educational institutions took part. The participants came from primary and lower-secondary schools as well as upper-secondary institutions, and from both public and private schools.

The students completed the assessment last year, but the results have only now been published. A total of 91 countries took part in this round. The first PISA assessment was conducted in 2000.

Rasch-Christensen said there was no single solution to the decline. He called for a broad academic improvement of schools that addressed funding, teachers and teacher education.