Argentina's performance in the latest PISA education tests has deteriorated across mathematics, reading and science, with President Javier Milei’s government blaming previous administrations for a decline it described as "critical."
The PISA results, released on Tuesday, showed Argentine 15-year-olds scoring below their 2022 levels in all three core subjects. Mathematics recorded the sharpest deterioration relative to the previous assessment, while Argentina also remained well below the average scores for the 38 OECD member countries taking part.
Number-crunching by the Argentinos por la Educación NGO found that 76 percent of students failed to meet minimum requirements in mathematics.
The findings are likely to fuel an increasingly political debate over Argentina's education system, with the Milei administration pointing to what it calls years of “failed” education policies under previous governments. The President’s critics, however, link the deterioration to the government's budget-slashing approach to public education and spending.
"The data show a critical situation in learning," the Human Capital Ministry said in a statement, arguing that a global trend of stagnating or falling educational performance "does not in itself explain the scale of the decline in Argentina."
The portfolio, headed by Sandra Pettovello, said the results reflected the accumulated learning of students after 12 years of schooling and therefore largely concerned pupils whose school careers began in 2013. Milei took office in December 2023.
The Human Capital Ministry statement blamed what it described as an "educational culture established over years by Kirchnerite governments," alleging that policies implemented by previous administrations had "damaged every part of the system.”
The government said it was seeking to reverse the trend through its National Literacy Plan and National Mathematics Plan, which aim to strengthen reading and writing skills and improve students' mathematical and numerical abilities.
PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an international assessment study organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It has been conducted periodically since 2000.
First conducted in 2000, PISA is held every three years and assesses the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics and science. Rather than testing whether pupils have simply memorised a particular curriculum, it examines how well they can apply what they know to unfamiliar problems and situations.
The assessment also collects information about students' backgrounds, attitudes and experiences at school, providing data on the wider circumstances in which learning takes place. In 2025, students took a two-hour test covering two subjects, followed by a questionnaire of about 35 minutes.
The 2025 edition involved 91 countries and economies and more than 760,000 students. Argentina's sample comprised 11,093 students in 412 schools, representing an estimated 609,100 15-year-olds, or about 87 percent of the country's population in that age group. The OECD said Argentina's data met all of its quality standards.
According to the report, Argentina scored 367 points in mathematics, 389 in reading and 393 in science. The results show a deterioration in all three areas compared with 2022.
All three scores were lower than in 2022, when Argentina scored 378 in mathematics, 401 in reading and 406 in science. The OECD said the 2025 results were also below those recorded in 2018.
The decline was particularly significant in science, where Argentina's score fell by 13 points between 2022 and 2025. Reading fell by 12 points and mathematics by 11.
On the basis of the 2025 results, Argentina ranked 62nd, 75th and 71st respectively among the 91 countries and education systems participating.
Among the 13 Latin American countries that took part in 2025, Argentina ranked eighth in all three areas assessed.
Argentina has taken part in PISA for more than two decades, allowing its performance to be tracked over a much longer period.
In reading, its average score has fallen from 418 points in 2000 to 389 in 2025.
Comparable mathematics data are available from 2006, when Argentina scored 381 points. The 2025 score of 367 represents a statistically significant decline.
Science has been more stable over the longer term: Argentina scored 391 points in 2006, compared with 393 in 2025.
Still, the latest results show deterioration across all three subjects over the most recent assessment period, with Argentina's 2025 scores below both 2022 and 2018.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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