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The results of the international PISA assessment programme, relating to the evaluation of students, were recently presented by Cyprus’s Minister of Education, Athena Michaelidou. The findings highlight the serious problems Cyprus faces in terms of students’ learning outcomes and overall educational attainment.
The study assesses the “literacy” of 15-year-old students (boys and girls) in three subject areas: Mathematics, Science and Reading Comprehension. Its aim is to evaluate the quality of participating countries’ education systems.
The PISA survey, organised every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), involved a total of 762,000 students from 91 countries in 2025.
The results for Cypriot students, as we will examine below, demonstrate that the island’s education system requires immediate structural reforms and improvements, as Cyprus has once again found itself among the lowest-performing countries.
According to the survey, the country’s education system continues to exhibit long-standing weaknesses that, unless addressed as soon as possible, will leave Cyprus lagging behind at a time when students and young people need a wide range of skills to enter the labour market.
Survey Details
According to the information presented by Cyprus’s Ministry of Education, the data were collected in the spring of 2025. A total of 7,802 Cypriot students from 103 schools participated, of which 75 were public schools and 28 were private schools.
As part of the PISA survey, students were given:
A computer-based assessment, designed to evaluate their ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-life situations.
A questionnaire aimed at collecting information about the students themselves, their family backgrounds, their schools, and their attitudes and perceptions regarding Science.
A school questionnaire designed to gather information about school characteristics and the policies implemented in relation to various educational issues.
Results of the Survey for Cyprus
Unfortunately, the survey results placed Cyprus and its students among the lowest-performing participants in statistical terms, compared with the corresponding average scores of other European Union countries.
Specifically, the average scores achieved by Cypriot students were:
1/ Science: 411 points (the European Union average was 481, while the OECD average was 482).
2/ Mathematics: 412 points (the European Union average was 463, while the OECD average was also 463).
3/ Reading Comprehension: 379 points (the European Union average was 459, while the OECD average was 461).
One particularly important finding is that, since the previous assessment in 2022, there has been no significant progress whatsoever in the learning outcomes of Cypriot students. On the contrary, although performance in Science and Reading Comprehension remained stable, Mathematics scores recorded a slight decline of six points.
Socioeconomic Background and Results
The PISA survey also brings to light important findings concerning students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.
More specifically, some students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds achieve scores that place them in the top 25% of students nationally. This is an encouraging finding, as the corresponding percentage is higher than the average recorded across European Union countries.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the findings presented above provide compelling evidence that Cyprus’s education system requires immediate reforms and improvements, as Cypriot students are increasingly struggling to compete with their counterparts in the rest of the European Union.
At a time when the Cypriot state spends substantial amounts of money on teachers’ salaries, learning outcomes continue to place Cyprus among the lowest-performing countries compared with other European Union member states.
As the Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Education Committee, Chrysanthos Savvides, stated in Parliament, it is alarming that six out of every ten students in Cyprus can read a text but are unable to understand what they are reading.
For his part, the Deputy Director of Secondary Education stressed that this particular survey does not accurately reflect the overall picture of schools. He also made it clear that changes would be introduced, including the addition of courses covering new technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics.
At the same time, he noted that proposals were being considered to reduce the amount of curriculum content, allocate more time for reading comprehension, encourage the comparison of sources, incorporate daily mathematical problem-solving exercises, and provide further professional development for teachers.