Hong Kong plunges out of top ten in science, posts decade-low education scores

Hong Kong has recorded its steepest drop in global education rankings in a decade, tumbling out of the top ten in science for the first time and posting its lowest-ever scores across mathematics, reading and the natural sciences.

The city slid to 17th place in science from seventh just three years ago, according to the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) results released last week. The scores "reinforce a negative trend that began after 2012," Pisa noted.

Decline follows earlier warning on creative thinking

The slide follows a wake-up call in the 2022 Pisa assessment, when Hong Kong scored below the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average on a newly introduced creative-thinking metric. That measure tested students' ability to generate, evaluate, improve and communicate ideas, as well as tackle social and scientific problems.

An education expert at the time warned the result revealed "our students are really not good at … thinking outside the box". Political consultant Alice Wu, a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA, asks whether education authorities have themselves been "thinking outside the box to address this".

"Let the 2025 Pisa scores released last week speak for themselves: our scores have dropped across the core subjects of mathematics, reading and science," Wu writes.

Education Bureau highlights digital performance

The Education Bureau chose to emphasise Hong Kong's "outstanding performance" in digital learning and noted that mathematical, scientific and mother-tongue reading literacy remained above average. However, Wu warns that the fault lies not with students but with "what happens inside classrooms".

While authorities and experts point to a global decline in domain subject scores linked to Covid-19, the steepness of Hong Kong's fall "warrants deeper consideration," Wu argues. She questions whether the outcome reflects "not learning from the last assessment".

The 2025 results present an uncomfortable question for the Education Bureau: whether it has absorbed the lessons of previous Pisa cycles or allowed the city's competitive advantage in core academic subjects to erode.

Source: South China Morning Post