Assessing Türkiye’s performance in the PISA 2025 cycle, Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, said the results represented a success story that should be examined by the entire world as it confronts challenges in education.
According to a statement from Türkiye’s Ministry of National Education, Schleicher congratulated teachers and school administrators in Türkiye in a video message released after the results. He said this achievement was important not only for Türkiye but also for the global education agenda.
Progress in mathematics, reading and science
Schleicher said Türkiye was one of the few education systems where student performance had improved across all three areas: mathematics, reading and science. He said average results in the three areas rose between 2022 and 2025.
Schleicher also said the proportion of low-performing students had declined significantly since 2015. He noted that this showed more students were acquiring the basic skills needed for lifelong learning and future opportunities.
“A school system in motion”
Emphasizing that the results were not merely the product of a single successful year, Schleicher said Türkiye had a school system undergoing change and making progress.
Schleicher said education provides a roadmap that shapes countries’ futures. He stated that the students currently in Türkiye’s classrooms would go on to shape the country’s future as engineers, entrepreneurs, doctors, researchers, teachers and public servants.
Teacher support and the classroom environment
According to data cited by Schleicher, seven out of every 10 students in Türkiye believe their teachers take a close interest in their learning. He said teachers continued explaining lessons until students understood the subject and provided additional support when needed.
Schleicher said students viewed the learning environment in their classrooms more positively than they had 10 years ago. He emphasized that education was not simply the mechanical transfer of knowledge from teacher to student, but a human process.
Curiosity and digital technologies
He said PISA data showed that Turkish students were willing to discover new things, could maintain their efforts when faced with difficulties and believed that abilities could be developed through effort, feedback and practice.
Schleicher said curiosity, perseverance, taking responsibility in the learning process and growth-oriented thinking had become essential qualities for success in learning, work and life in a world where knowledge changes rapidly and artificial intelligence can produce answers within seconds.
Schleicher said Turkish students were willing to use digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, and that the government’s prioritization of addressing shortages of devices could turn this potential into a significant advantage in the future.
He said technology’s contribution to learning depended on how it was used, adding that the ultimate goal should not simply be to make processes easier but to develop students’ capabilities.
Congratulating Türkiye’s education community once again on the results, Schleicher said the opportunity ahead was to move faster and further by including every child in this progress. He said the talent, imagination and potential in Türkiye’s classrooms were the country’s most valuable natural resource.
