The PISA 2025 results are a wake-up call. Israel has just recorded its lowest-ever PISA results – and we cannot simply carry on as before.

The results are in. And we need to pay attention. Fast.

The latest OECD PISA 2025 results paint a deeply troubling picture of education in Israel. More than 760,000 students across 91 countries and economies took part in the assessment, which measures what 15-year-olds know and can do in science, mathematics and reading. (OECD)

And Israel’s results should concern every parent, educator and policymaker in the country.

According to the OECD, Israel’s 2025 results are the lowest ever observed in PISA in all three subjects: mathematics, reading and science. Israel first participated in PISA in 2002. 

Israel scored below the OECD average in all three subjects.  The OECD says the 2025 results are significantly below Israel’s results in 2022, 2018, 2015 and 2012.

This is not a minor fluctuation. This is not a bad year. This is a warning.

And we need to stop explaining it away.

Firstly, this is not about blaming teachers. Israel has many excellent teachers, outstanding educators and wonderful schools. But a national education system cannot be judged by its exceptions. A good education system has to work consistently for every child. It cannot be enough to point to excellent schools, exceptional teachers or children who are thriving and declare that the system is therefore working. The question is whether the system as a whole is delivering the education our children need. The latest results suggest that it is not.

So we need to ask a much more fundamental question: Who is our education system actually designed for?

The answer should be obvious. It should be designed around the child.

Not around the bureaucracy. Not around the budget. Not around political convenience. Not around institutional interests. And not around protecting structures simply because they have existed for years.

Yet too often, decisions appear to be made according to what the system can accommodate rather than what children actually need.

That has to change. Israel needs to review its system so that the child comes first.

At the municipal level in particular, we need to change the questions from . “How much will this cost?” or even: “How much money will this after-school programme bring in?” to “What does this child........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)