Singapore and China top 2025 global student assessment, OECD scores fall

Singapore and mainland China have claimed the top positions in the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment, while member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development recorded their lowest average scores since the survey began.

The OECD published the findings on Tuesday, revealing that Singapore narrowly edged out mainland China in reading proficiency, scoring 535 points compared to China's 527. However, the city state trailed behind China in the other two domains assessed.

China leads in mathematics and science

Students from mainland China dominated the mathematics and science categories, achieving 612 points in maths and 597 points in science, scores that substantially exceeded the OECD averages of 463 and 482 points in those subjects, respectively. Singapore secured second place in both disciplines, posting 563 points in mathematics and 560 points in science.

Largest assessment in survey history

The 2025 edition surveyed 760,000 fifteen-year-old students across 91 countries and economies, including both OECD member states and partner nations. This marks the largest iteration of the triennial assessment since the OECD first launched it in 2000.

The programme incorporated a new computational problem-solving module designed to evaluate student preparedness for the artificial intelligence era. The sharp performance gap between East Asian education systems and OECD averages highlights diverging educational outcomes at a time when assessment frameworks are expanding to capture digital-age competencies.

Source: South China Morning Post