PISA: France posts lowest score, one in three fifteen-year-olds in Germany below threshold

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released on Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 the results of the international PISA survey of fifteen-year-olds. The survey involved roughly 760,000 students in 91 countries and territories, with data collected in 2025 (CNEWS, franceinfo).

Before the figures, a clarification on sourcing. The three French outlets consulted all report the same account: the French portion of this analysis currently stems from a single source (the OECD report), without independent confirmation. The German portion rests on two separate public-service reports, from ARD and Westdeutscher Rundfunk.

France: the comparison with 2022

Compared with the 2022 survey, French scores fall by 16 points in mathematics, 18 in reading comprehension and 4 in science. The OECD estimates that 20 points correspond approximately to one year of schooling: the conversion is the organization’s own, not a figure measured on individual students. France ranks 27th, with the top positions in the table held by Asian countries (franceinfo, Planète Grandes Écoles). “Scores are getting lower and lower” (transl. from French): the statement is attributed to Éric Charbonnier, whose role or affiliation is not indicated in the consulted excerpt (CNEWS).

Germany: the threshold, not the ranking

The German reading of the same data focuses on an indicator different from the ranking. In Germany, roughly one in three fifteen-year-olds fails to reach the baseline level in reading and in mathematics; in science the share is roughly one in four. In mathematics the national score falls from over 500 points in 2015 to 464 in the cited survey. The German sample comprises roughly 6,700 students across 250 schools (Tagesschau).

Westdeutscher Rundfunk adds a domestic gap figure: in reading comprehension the average score is 438 points for students with a migration background and 521 for those without (WDR).

Indicator	France	Germany
Reference point in the account	27th place in the ranking	share below baseline level
Mathematics	−16 points versus 2022	464 points (over 500 in 2015)
Reading	−18 points versus 2022	roughly 1 in 3 fifteen-year-olds below threshold
Science	−4 points versus 2022	roughly 1 in 4 fifteen-year-olds below threshold

The novelty in the questionnaire

This edition measures for the first time students’ use of generative artificial intelligence and observes a correlation between intensive use and poorer science results, without establishing any causal link (CNEWS). It is a correlation stated as such by the source: it does not say whether use produces lower results, or the reverse, or whether both depend on something else.

The OECD estimates that 20 points equate to roughly one year of schooling.

A matter of naming

French sources speak of “PISA 2026”, German sources of the 2025 survey. The difference does not concern the data — collected in 2025 and published in 2026 — but the label under which the same survey is named in the two countries (franceinfo, Tagesschau).

What we do not know

The excerpts do not report France’s absolute scores, nor the full ranking beyond the indication that the top positions are held by Asian countries. They do not contain the figure for Italy. They do not indicate what operational definition of “intensive use” of generative AI was adopted in the questionnaire, nor the size of the subpopulations on which the correlation is calculated. They do not specify the role of the person to whom the quote on falling scores is attributed. The OECD-wide average level is reported as declining, but the excerpts do not quantify the extent of the decline.