Thai Students Gain Ground in PISA 2025 But Lag OECD

Every three years, the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, runs a global study of 15-year-old students. It aims to test how well students can apply what they have learned in science, mathematics and reading to real-world problems. It also polls students on their learning environments.

More than 760,000 students took part in PISA 2025, representing about 33 million students in 91 countries and economies worldwide. As a result, it is among the most rigorous educational assessments in the world.

Thailand's performance improved across all three core subjects in 2025, though scores remained substantially below OECD averages. Thailand scored 432 in science, 407 in mathematics and 392 in reading, up 23 points in science and 13 points in both mathematics and reading from 2022. In science, Thailand ranked 53rd of 91 participating countries and economies, improving from 58th place in 2022.

The assessment included 8,547 students from 273 schools, representing an estimated 542,700 Thai 15-year-olds, or about 69% of the age cohort nationally.

Despite recent gains, Thailand's scores remained below 2015 levels in science and reading, with a high share of low-performing students. In science, 59% of Thai students reached the baseline proficiency level, compared with 74% across OECD countries, while only 1% achieved the highest levels compared with 7% internationally. Performance in mathematics and reading was more concerning: just 41% of Thai students reached baseline proficiency in each subject, against OECD averages of 65% and 69% respectively. Almost no Thai students reached the highest reading level, while 6% did so in OECD countries.

PISA 2025 also introduced a new computational problem-solving assessment measuring students' ability to use digital tools to model problems, conduct experiments, and analyse data. Thailand scored 476 in this assessment, below the OECD average of 500.