On Tuesday 8 September 2026, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the results of the international PISA 2025 study, which focused primarily on natural sciences and revealed a decline in the skills of fifteen-year-old students, particularly across Europe.
According to Luxembourg's Ministry of Education, Children and Youth, the Grand Duchy recorded considerable declines across all three assessed areas - natural sciences, mathematics and reading comprehension - compared with 2018.
The findings were more positive in other areas. Luxembourg students performed relatively well in “Computational Problem Solving”, while the link between students' performance and their migration background weakened significantly compared with previous PISA studies.
The marked decline in reading comprehension skills was described as particularly concerning, as these skills form the basis for learning, understanding and critically analysing information and forming one's own opinion.
“Reading is not simply one skill among many,” said Luxembourg's Minister of Education, Children and Youth, Claude Meisch. “The excessive use of smartphones and social media is once again having a negative impact on young people's reading habits,” he continued.
He noted that young people had grown up in a digital environment and spent considerable time on their smartphones, changing the way they access and process information.
“We must work together to find ways of restoring young people's ability and desire to engage in depth with longer and more complex texts. We must also support families in their efforts to instil in children, from an early age, an appreciation of and enthusiasm for reading,” Minister Meisch concluded.
According to the OECD, the decline in reading comprehension is linked to a combination of factors, including the use of digital media and smartphones. In Luxembourg, the country's complex linguistic situation represents an additional factor.
The PISA 2025 results nevertheless showed relatively strong performance among Luxembourg students in computational problem solving and a significant reduction in the link between performance and migration background compared with previous editions of the study.
