Cyprus has fallen to its weakest reading and mathematics results in more than a decade of international assessments, ranking last in the EU for reading and ahead of only Bulgaria in mathematics.
The results come from the OECD’s 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which examines how well 15-year-olds can apply their knowledge to problems beyond the classroom.
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Cyprus scored 379 points in reading and 412 in mathematics. Some 62.1% of Cypriot pupils failed to reach minimum reading proficiency and 55.6% fell below the equivalent threshold in mathematics, according to the PISA 2025 results.
Reading fell by less than two points from 2022, a difference that was not statistically significant. Mathematics declined by approximately seven points, and this difference was significant. Over the longer term, reading has fallen by about 69 points since 2012 and mathematics by 28.
PISA samples eligible pupils in public, private and foreign schools, as well as those in academic and vocational programmes. The results, therefore, are not to be attributed to state schools alone.
These results also expose a prominent contrast for the economy. Cyprus had a tertiary attainment rate of 60.1% among 25 to 34-year-olds in 2024, compared with an EU average of 44.2%. Since then, the European Commission (EC) has warned that weak basic skills are restricting the pool of potential science, technology, engineering and mathematics students. The EC’s 2025 education monitor suggests “a general problem related to the quality of education.”
Cyprus was not the only country to report weaker results. Average reading and mathematics performance across OECD countries fell to the lowest levels recorded by PISA. Nevertheless, Cyprus’s position at the bottom of the EU tables should be a cause of concern on the national front.
A problem with application
PISA does not merely test whether pupils can reproduce material taught in class. It examines whether they can “extrapolate from what they have learned” and apply it to real-life problems.
Maria Panayidou, Public Relations Manager at Trinity Private School, told The Future Media that this differentiation nuance is what she has observed among pupils.
“The issue is not so much knowledge retention as it is the application of knowledge. There is a marked decrease in comprehension and independent skill application,”
she said.
Panayidou said the change had become particularly visible over the past three to four years.
“Students demonstrate greater ability to locate information than to interrogate it or apply it in tandem with other information. In fact, the OECD itself has identified this tendency as a crucial issue for education in the age of artificial intelligence.”
Her comments reflect concerns in institutional research. Cyprus has revised its curricula and announced several reforms over the last few years, but the European Commission says the effect of these reforms has yet to be seen in achievement data. A UNESCO project examining basic skills in Cyprus has identified the “need to strengthen the link between policy design and classroom practice.”
Panayidou also cited an internal Year 9 initiative conducted at Trinity Private School in which pupils selected a subject, conducted research and analysed the data they collected while studying statistics. She said the pupils performed better and retained more of the material when tested again eight weeks later than those who had worked through pre-set mathematical problems.
Her example concerned mathematics, but the reading data raise a related question about how closely pupils engage with the task in front of them. PISA classified 24.9% of responses by pupils in Cyprus as “hasty,” suggesting they were both rushed and incorrect, compared with an OECD average of 8.9%.
Panayidou believes screen use may be part of the haste for students to complete the task at hand. “Screen time is definitely a contributing factor, as students’ attention spans when it comes to reading are increasingly difficult to gauge,” she said.
PISA cannot establish whether screens caused the decline in results. Hasty answers could also be the result of poor comprehension, weak motivation or limited effort in an assessment with no personal academic consequences.
Although 83.4% of pupils in Cyprus attended schools whose principals said mobile phones were prohibited on school premises, compared with 49.5% across the OECD, only 37.4% reported no digital distraction, slightly below the OECD average of 39.2%.
A weakness across income groups
Family circumstances can also impact pupils’ academic performance. About 69% of pupils in Cyprus’s least advantaged socioeconomic quarter were low performers in reading, while nearly 67% fell below minimum proficiency in mathematics.
“The issue in Cyprus is one of equal opportunity,” Panayidou said. “Thus, if Cyprus wishes to improve its results, it needs to start by addressing the educational outcomes of disadvantaged groups. It is crucial to begin prioritising need.”
Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds were more likely to fall below minimum proficiency levels, but weak results were also common among those from “better-off” families. Among pupils in the most advantaged quarter, 45% were still low performers in reading and 37% in mathematics. The figures suggest that disadvantaged backgrounds increase the risk of low performance, but are not the sole reason to explain the scale of the problem.
The country’s long-established culture of “frontistiria” (after-school lesson institutions) adds another dimension. Research cited by UNESCO has reported on Cyprus’s reliance on private supplementary tuition for more than two decades, although current national data is unavailable.
Private lessons can provide pupils with support that schools do not. That may partly explain why Cyprus’s long-standing reliance on frontistiria has not produced stronger PISA results. When private tuition concentrates on syllabus-based examinations, pupils practise familiar question types, while PISA asks them to apply knowledge in unfamiliar situations. However, this also raises an equity question when education depends on what families can afford.
Another point to consider is the shortage of staff or equipment. Cypriot pupils were more likely than the OECD average to attend schools reporting no teacher or material shortages. Student-rated teacher support was below average, however, and only 26.2% attended schools offering free peer-to-peer tutoring, compared with 51.2% across the OECD.
Cyprus has since introduced school evaluation and a new teacher-evaluation system, while UNESCO began a 26-month basic-skills project with the government in November 2025. The teacher-evaluation system entered into force at the end of that year, after the PISA assessment. It is too early to see the results from this change, however.
Panayidou argues that intervention must begin years before pupils reach the age tested by PISA.
“If a student begins to struggle when they are 7 or 8, it is much easier to provide additional help in small groups than to try to assist them at the secondary level. By the time a student is 15, a deficit in reading comprehension has already manifested itself in lower academic achievement, which is why early intervention is paramount.”
