New Zealand student achievement appears to be stabilising after years of decline, with the latest international PISA assessment showing pupils continuing to perform above the OECD average in reading, science and mathematics.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 were broadly consistent with those recorded in 2022, although she cautioned that further improvement was needed.
New Zealand ranked ninth internationally in reading, tenth in science and 16th in mathematics. Students were also among the strongest performers in computational problem-solving, which formed part of the assessment’s 2025 focus on Learning in the Digital World.
The results also indicated an improvement in students’ attitudes towards education. Compared with 2022, more students reported that school was teaching them useful skills and preparing them for adult life.
The achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students narrowed across reading, mathematics and science, while the proportion reporting that they put additional effort into difficult work increased by 6.9 percent.
“It is encouraging to see students value what they are learning and build the skills they need for a changing world,” Stanford said.
However, the results come with a significant qualification because New Zealand failed to meet OECD participation requirements for the 2025 assessment.
Only 52 percent of selected schools participated, along with 76 percent of selected students. The Government acknowledged that the relatively low participation rate means the results could present a more favourable picture than would have emerged from a fully representative sample.
Stanford said international assessments remained important for tracking the performance of New Zealand’s education system over time and identifying areas requiring improvement.
“Together with our national data, these studies help us understand the strengths of our education system and where we need to improve,” she said.
The Government has recently passed legislation requiring schools selected for PISA and other international monitoring programmes to participate.
Stanford said making greater use of educational data was one of her six priorities, with information gathered through assessments such as PISA intended to guide policies aimed at improving student achievement.
Could be an election year ploy
But we will remain positive
Never heard of Pisa, except for the wonky leaning structure in Italy…
And…just in time for the (s)elections…a poor reminder of Nazional trying to lend credibility to their failed Uni-Party education policies, both past & present!
This will continue until the Bullyocracy is stopped…and Darwinism in the schools, workplace and society in general is finally extinguished, with sports being the vehicle that programs the sub-conscience for bullying behaviours.
I invite the bullies (and they know who they are..!) to sign-up for military service, go to an active war zone, then suffer debilitating physical & psychological injuries as a result. Let’s just see how tough and Darwinistic you really are!
Bullyocracy: How the Social Hierarchy Enables Bullies to Rule Schools, Work Places, and Society at Large
by Donald Jeffries (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (55)
See all formats and editions
Bestselling author Donald Jeffries turns his critical eye onto the topic of bullying to show how teachers, principals, and other school officials invariably side with the bullies in the most egregious cases, instead of protecting the victims. He also shows how many so-called anti-bullying activists and nearly all the professional “experts” excuse bullying and in fact laud sociopathic behavior in general. As Jeffries demonstrates, this curious phenomenon is due to the power and influence of the social hierarchy, and it revolves to a great extent around the enduring popularity of sports. Jeffries talked to parents who’d battled a system that logically should have been working for them, some of whom lost a child to bullycide, the term for children who kill themselves over bullying. His investigation into what has become one of the most talked about issues in America is as explosive and controversial as anything he has written.
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“Donald Jeffries is one of our most talented and prolific writers who is never afraid to tackle the most difficult problems facing society today. Here he focuses on bullying in our education system with special insights into cyber-bullying that has emerged as a lethal form of persecution. High schools in many ways have become a jungle where bullies pounce on their weaker victims, many of whom carry the scars for years. Jeffries not only explores the issues involved but adroitly proposes solutions. His information is invaluable.” —Douglas Caddy, Author, and Member of the District of Columbia and Texas Bars
“Jeffries shows the enraging parallels between workplace and schoolyard bullies and how American institutions historically and consistently side with the aggressors, even when they advertise themselves as “zero tolerance” zones. This applies to victims who take their own lives as well, as the book eloquently points how even their experiences are often conveniently rewritten post-death in favor of their abusers. This book collects both tragic accounts of bullying as well as some of the more absurd steps of “zero tolerance” taken in a vain attempt to cover an institution’s rear end instead of caring for the well-being of any tortured individual.” —Gina Tron, author of You’re Fine
“We have insight into the root cause of bullying, why it continues to occur, and its long term effects, so why do we still have a bullying epidemic? Teaching students, parents, and school officials about the negative effects of bullying early-on is only part of the solution. As a society and as individuals, we still allow bullies to rule the classroom, the boardroom, even the oval office. Don Jeffries’s thoroughly researched book explains why and how this continues to occur. Like it or not, bullying affects us all. This is an important topic worth examining and a book that needs to be read.” —Jesse Ventura, former Independent Governor of Minnesota
From hostile high school hallways to the Oval Office, we’ve become a nation ruled by bullies, while those who are ostensibly there to protect us actively or passively enable them. In this trenchant expose, Donald Jeffries reveals how pervasive is the “bullyocracy” and suggests some of the social factors that can diminish its power.” —Michael Kimmel, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities