the level of French students is falling but it remains within the world average, according to the Pisa ranking

The OECD published its Pisa survey on Tuesday which assesses the skills of 15-year-old students around the world. The general level is falling, and France is no exception.

It’s a general collapse. The highly anticipated Pisa survey has just been unveiled on Tuesday, December 5, by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Every three years it surveys student performance in reading comprehension, in science, but especially in mathematics this year, and it serves as a reference for governments.

And the verdict is clear: since the creation of Pisa in 2000, we have noted an unprecedented fall with the average score of all countries which is therefore in sharp decline on a sample of 690,000 young people aged 15 assessed in 81 countries or territories . Since the last edition in 2018, the mathematics score has fallen by 15 points. A historic fall since the differences from one cycle to the next reached at worst four points until now. In France, the decline is even greater with minus 19 points in reading comprehension, and even minus 21 points in maths. The test was taken in spring 2022 by 6,800 students in France, most of them drawn randomly from second year classes.

The countries leading the way in this discipline are, as usual in Asia, with Singapore, Japan and Korea. The first in Europe are Estonia, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In France, we are in the middle third with levels equivalent today to those of Spain, Hungary or Germany, which are falling from higher levels. Norway and Finland, countries accustomed to good rankings, are also declining more. In fact, France is falling a lot but remains within the OECD average.

Covid has lowered the level

When we look in detail at the results of young French people, it turns out that there are a lot of educational inequalities. The socio-economic background of students predicts their performance more than the average. The differences in results between advantaged and disadvantaged young people are still not decreasing. There are also gender disparities because girls are better at reading comprehension while boys are better at maths.

To explain this decline in France, the OECD presents several avenues. There is of course Covid and its consequences. All the countries evaluated have gone through this same epidemic but some more intensely than others. What also plays a role, according to this survey, is the students’ feeling of being supported by their teachers and France is still one of the countries where young people say they perceive the least support. 62% say, for example, that the teacher provides additional help to students who need it, which is eight points less than the average and 22 points less than Japan.

Young people also speak of a disciplinary climate that is less favorable to learning than in most OECD countries. Half of students in France say that there is noise or commotion in most lessons, compared to a third on average. The problem is getting a little worse compared to 2018 and remains “worrying” in the eyes of the institution.

The report also mentions teacher shortages: four years ago, according to school heads, 17% of students suffered from a shortage of teachers. This time, it is 67%, the largest increase in the OECD, and the gap with the international average is enormous. Parents also have their responsibility, since their involvement has been declining for four years. For example, they ask for meetings with their teachers less often.