: What the International Assessment Means for the Country’s Education System.

Rwanda has officially launched the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025, marking an important moment for the country’s education sector. The assessment gives Rwanda, for the first time, an internationally comparable picture of how its 15-year-old learners perform in key areas such as science, mathematics and reading.

The launch comes as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publishes the initial PISA 2025 results on 8 September 2026. More than 760,000 students from 91 countries and economies participated in the latest assessment, making it the largest PISA cycle so far.

For Rwanda, the findings are particularly significant because the country participated in PISA for the first time in 2025. The results are therefore more than an international ranking exercise—they provide a baseline against which Rwanda can measure future progress.

What Is PISA and Why Is It Important?

PISA stands for the Programme for International Student Assessment, an international study coordinated by the OECD.

Unlike many traditional examinations, PISA is designed to examine whether 15-year-old students can apply what they have learned to real-life situations. The assessment focuses on students' ability to use knowledge, reason, solve problems and understand information rather than simply reproduce information from memory.

PISA 2025 assessed three core areas:

• Science
• Mathematics
• Reading

The 2025 cycle also introduced an innovative assessment of Learning in the Digital World, examining how students use digital tools and computational approaches to solve problems and manage their own learning.

This makes PISA particularly relevant at a time when education systems are being challenged to prepare young people not only for examinations, but also for employment, technology, innovation and everyday decision-making.

Rwanda’s First Participation in PISA

Rwanda's participation in PISA 2025 represents a major step in the country's efforts to strengthen the measurement of learning outcomes.

According to the OECD, Rwanda is listed as a 2025 PISA participant, making this the country's first participation in the international assessment.

Before the results were released, Rwanda had already identified PISA as an opportunity to benchmark its education system against other countries.

The Ministry of Education, through the National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA), previously launched Rwanda's participation in the PISA 2025 Main Survey. The national launch was presided over by the Minister of Education, with another launch event taking place in Gasabo District. Officials said the assessment would help Rwanda understand its position internationally and identify areas requiring improvement.

The release of the results therefore gives policymakers, teachers, parents and education stakeholders new evidence to examine.

What Do the PISA 2025 Results Show?

One of the most important findings concerning Rwanda is in reading proficiency.

OECD data show that only about 4% of Rwanda's 15-year-old students reached Level 2 or higher in reading, compared with an OECD average of 69%. Level 2 is considered the baseline level at which students can, among other things, identify the main idea in a moderately complex text and locate information using explicit criteria.

This is an important finding, but it needs to be interpreted carefully.

PISA is not simply asking whether a learner can read words. It examines whether students can understand, interpret, use and evaluate information from texts. In today's education and employment environment, those skills are essential.

For Rwanda, the reading result highlights the importance of strengthening foundational literacy and comprehension throughout the education system.

It also shows why simply increasing school enrolment is not enough. Learners need to acquire meaningful skills that allow them to benefit from education and apply knowledge outside the classroom.

PISA Is About More Than Rankings

It would be easy to look at PISA results simply as a list of countries ranked from highest to lowest.

However, that would miss one of the most valuable purposes of the assessment.

The OECD itself describes PISA as a way of understanding what students know and can do, while also examining the circumstances in which they learn. The assessment collects information about students, schools and learning environments to help explain differences in educational outcomes.

This means Rwanda can use the results to ask more important questions:

Why are some learners performing better than others?

Which skills require greater attention?

What support do teachers need?

How can schools improve learning outcomes?

What role should parents play?

How can technology be used effectively in learning?

These questions are ultimately more important than a country's position in a league table.

Reading, Mathematics and Science Need Attention

PISA 2025 comes at a time when education systems around the world are facing significant learning challenges.

The OECD reported that, across OECD countries, mathematics and reading performance fell sharply in 2025, reaching the lowest average levels recorded in the history of PISA. Science performance, the main focus of the 2025 assessment, was broadly stable between 2022 and 2025 across OECD countries.

This global context is important when considering Rwanda's results.

The challenge facing Rwanda is not isolated from wider changes in education. Countries are dealing with learning disruptions, changing technology, new forms of communication and growing demands for digital and problem-solving skills.

At the same time, Rwanda has the opportunity to learn from education systems that have demonstrated strong performance and from countries that have successfully improved their results.

What Can Rwanda Learn From PISA 2025?

The results can become a valuable tool for education planning if they are translated into practical action.

1. Strengthen Reading and Comprehension

The reading findings make literacy one of the most important areas requiring attention.

Schools need to move beyond teaching learners to recognize words and focus more strongly on reading comprehension, interpretation, critical thinking and communication.

Learners should regularly work with different types of texts and be asked to explain ideas, compare information, identify evidence and draw conclusions.

2. Make Mathematics More Practical

Mathematics should increasingly be connected to real-life situations.

Students can learn mathematical concepts through problems involving money, construction, measurements, transport, agriculture, business, household budgeting and technology.

This approach is closely aligned with PISA's emphasis on applying knowledge to real-world situations.

3. Promote Practical Science

Science education should not be limited to memorizing definitions and formulas.

Students need opportunities to observe, experiment, investigate, analyse evidence and explain everyday phenomena.

This can be especially valuable in Rwanda, where schools can use locally available materials and real-life environmental and agricultural examples to make science more practical.

4. Invest in Teachers

Teachers are at the centre of any effort to improve learning outcomes.

PISA 2025 reinforces the importance of supportive learning environments and strong relationships between students, teachers and families. The OECD's analysis also emphasizes teacher support, parental engagement and targeted assistance for students and schools that need it most.

Therefore, professional development should help teachers strengthen instructional methods, assessment practices, digital literacy and approaches to supporting struggling learners.

5. Use Technology Carefully

PISA 2025 introduces a new dimension by examining learning in the digital world.

The OECD's findings suggest that technology and artificial intelligence can support learning when they are used purposefully, but they should not replace students' own thinking and understanding. Students also need to learn how to evaluate information generated by AI and identify inaccurate or misleading content.

For Rwanda, this presents both an opportunity and a responsibility.

Schools can use digital resources to expand access to learning materials, but technology should complement strong foundations in reading, mathematics and science.

What the Results Mean for Teachers

For teachers, PISA should not be viewed as an examination that only concerns policymakers.

The assessment provides useful lessons for classroom practice.

Teachers can increasingly use questions that require learners to:

• Explain their reasoning.
• Apply knowledge to unfamiliar situations.
• Analyse information.
• Interpret graphs and tables.
• Compare different solutions.
• Justify an answer.
• Solve practical problems.
• Communicate conclusions clearly.

These approaches can help students develop skills that extend beyond passing school examinations.

What Parents Can Do

Parents also have an important role.

Learning does not stop when a student leaves school.

Parents can encourage children to read regularly, discuss what they have learned, ask questions about everyday problems and create an environment where curiosity is valued.

Simple activities such as discussing a news article, calculating household expenses, measuring objects around the home or talking about scientific observations can contribute to the development of practical skills.

PISA 2025 Should Be Seen as a Baseline for Rwanda

Perhaps the most important point for Rwanda is that PISA 2025 establishes a baseline.

Because Rwanda is participating for the first time, future PISA cycles can provide an opportunity to determine whether reforms are producing measurable improvements.

Instead of focusing only on whether Rwanda is above or below another country, education leaders can examine whether Rwanda's own performance improves over time.

That is where the real value of international assessment lies.

A Global Education Challenge

Rwanda's results should also be understood within the wider international picture.

The 2025 assessment involved more than 760,000 students representing approximately 33 million 15-year-olds worldwide. The OECD reported that students' performance, engagement and learning conditions vary significantly between education systems.

Interestingly, even high-income countries are experiencing serious learning challenges. The OECD reported that one in five 15-year-olds across OECD countries is now a low performer in science, mathematics and reading, compared with 16% in 2022.

This demonstrates that improving education is a continuous process for every country.

Turning PISA Results Into Action

The launch of the PISA 2025 results in Rwanda is an important moment for the country's education sector.

The findings provide valuable evidence about the skills of 15-year-old learners and give policymakers an international benchmark for understanding the country's education outcomes.

The reading result in particular highlights a significant challenge, with only around 4% of Rwandan students reaching the baseline Level 2 or above in PISA reading.

However, the most constructive response is not simply to focus on rankings.

The real question is what Rwanda does next.

If the findings are used to strengthen literacy, mathematics, science, teacher development, parental engagement, practical learning and responsible use of technology, PISA 2025 can become more than an international assessment.

It can become a roadmap for improving learning outcomes in Rwanda.

As the OECD puts it, the purpose of PISA is not simply to identify what is going wrong, but to help education systems learn from one another and identify what is possible.

For Rwanda, the 2025 results should therefore be treated not as the final word on the country's education system, but as the starting point for a new phase of evidence-based education improvement.