Georgia’s 15-year-old students improved their results in mathematics, reading and science compared to 2022 in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), although their scores remain significantly below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average in all three subjects amid a wider global decline in results.
The results of PISA, a study which assesses the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students and examines how well they can apply their knowledge in the real world, were published on September 8, leading Georgian Dream authorities to hail the improvements and attribute them to the reforms, while critics dismissed the change as “insignificant.”
Georgia’s recorded improvement comes amid what the report said was an international decline. “The overall performance of OECD countries declined, with the lowest average levels of performance ever observed in science, reading and mathematics,” the report noted.
The study covered more than 760,000 students in 91 countries and economies, while Georgia participated with 6,855 students from 265 schools, marking the country’s fifth test cycle since its first participation in 2010. The test has been conducted once every three years up until 2025, but the cycle is set to extend to once in every four years in the future.
For the study, the students took a two hour test, and each student was tested in two subjects, with test items being a mixture of multiple-choice questions and questions requiring students to construct their own responses.
PISA 2025 Results
According to the report, Georgian students scored an average of 422 points in science, compared with 384 in 2022; 416 points in mathematics, up from 390 in 2022; and 384 points in reading, compared with 374 three years earlier.
PISA 2025 average scores were a historic high for Georgian students in science and mathematics, while in reading, the average performance, while improved compared to 2022, remained still below PISA 2015 (401 points), the report said.
According to the report, Georgia’s results remain below the OECD average in all three subjects, with OECD average amounting to 482 points in science, 463 in mathematics, and 461 in reading.
Over the last 3-year cycle, the gap between the highest-scoring students and the weakest students widened in mathematics and science, but did not change significantly in reading, according to the report. Also, compared to 2015 the proportion of low-performing students decreased by four percentage points in mathematics, increased by nine percentage points in reading, and decreased by six percentage points in science.
The Georgian official analysis shows that a substantial share of Georgian students do not reach what PISA considers the baseline level of proficiency. In reading, 61% of Georgian students performed below Level 2, compared with 31% across OECD countries. In mathematics, 53% were below the baseline level, compared with 35% in the OECD, while in science the respective figures were 45% and 26%.
At the same time, one percent of Georgian students reached the top Level 5 or 6 in science, compared with an OECD average of 7%, while 2% reached those levels in mathematics, compared with 8% across the OECD. In reading, the OECD said “almost no” Georgian students reached Level 5 or higher, compared with an OECD average of 6%.
At the same time, the Georgian analysis shows improvement in the proportion of students reaching the baseline across all three subjects, noting that 27% reached at least Level 2 in all three subjects in 2025, up from 17% in the previous PISA cycle. It is, however, still far below OECD average of 50%.
Socio-Economic Disparities
According to the OECD report, the gap in science performance between the top and the bottom 25% of students in terms of socio-economic status narrowed in Georgia over the past decade, as across OECD countries on average.
“Over this period, performance improved among disadvantaged students, but remained stable among advantaged students,” the report says, noting that the socio-economic status accounted for 4 percent of the variation in science performance in Georgia in 2025, compared to 12% on average across OECD countries.
Significant disparities also remain between public and private schools, according to the Georgian analysis. Private-school students scored an average of 465 points against 418 among public-school students in science; 464 against 412 in mathematics; and 419 against 381 in reading.
Differences according to school location have narrowed over the past decade, with the Georgian analysis linking much of the change to improved performance among students in rural areas and small towns.
The analysis also identifies significant differences according to the language of instruction, highlighting particularly low results among students in Azerbaijani-language schools.
Authorities Hail Improvement, Critics Are Skeptical
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party officials welcomed the results, emphasizing the improvement since the previous assessment and Georgia’s performance against broader global decline in student achievement.
The GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said at a government meeting on September 8 that Georgia had improved in all of PISA’s main areas and achieved its best results of the past decade in mathematics and science.
“In terms of improvement in science performance, Georgia ranked first among the 91 countries participating in the study,” Kobakhidze said. “Against the backdrop of a global decline in achievement, Georgia is maintaining a steady trend of improvement,” he added, also pointing to a reduction in the share of low-performing students and a narrowing gap between urban and rural schools.
Kobakhidze nevertheless acknowledged that the results remained insufficient, saying there were still “shortcomings” and “much to improve.”
The GD Education Minister Givi Mikanadze similarly described the results as “very welcome news.” He highlighted the improvement in science in particular and linked the progress to the importance of the government’s ongoing education reforms.
Critics, however, were more skeptical. Simon Janashia, an education expert a member of the opposition Freedom Square party, offered a more critical assessment of the results.
“The changes are insignificant if we look at them from a long-term perspective, rather than comparing only the results of 2022 [post-pandemic] and 2025,” Janashia said.
Pointing to the small share of high-performing students, as well as high share of low-performing students on the other end of the scale, Janashia said “there has been a slight improvement, particularly in the share of students who perform at the lowest level, but the change in the overall results is insignificant.”
Janashia also questioned the significance of the gains, claiming Georgian schools had, for the first time, been instructed to have students practise taking the tests ahead of the 2025 assessment.
Author: Nino Baindurashvili
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