The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international assessment conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) every three years to evaluate the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students worldwide. Rather than focusing primarily on students’ ability to recall curriculum content, PISA assesses how effectively students can apply their knowledge and skills to real-life situations, solve problems, think critically, and use what they have learned in unfamiliar contexts.
PISA was launched in 1997, and the first assessment was conducted in 2000 with 32 countries and economies. PISA assesses three core domains-reading, mathematics, and science. In addition to measuring student performance, PISA collects extensive information on students’ backgrounds, learning experiences, attitudes, and school environments. This allows participating countries and economies to examine not only what students know and can do, but also the factors associated with learning outcomes.
PISA 2025 is the ninth cycle of PISA, involving 91 countries and economies. The assessment continues to focus on reading, mathematics, and science while examining students’ ability to reproduce and apply knowledge and to extrapolate from what they have learned when facing unfamiliar problems and situations, both inside and outside the school environment. First-time participants in PISA 2025 include Armenia, Ecuador, Egypt, Kenya, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, Rwanda, Tajikistan, and Zambia.
Cambodia participated in full PISA for the second time, following its participation in PISA for Development (PISA-D) in 2017¹ and PISA 2022. These previous assessments provided Cambodia with important experience and strengthened the country’s capacity to participate in large-scale international assessments.
The content
The PISA 2025 assessment focused on science, along with reading, mathematics and computational problem solving. In each round of PISA, one subject is tested in detail among the core subjects of science, reading and mathematics. The main subject in 2025 was science, as it was in 2006 and 2015. Reading was the main subject in 2000, 2009 and 2018. Mathematics was the main subject in 2003, 2012 and 2022.
The assessment
PISA 2025 retained a paper-based version of the assessment that included only trend items for science, reading and mathematics. This paper-based assessment was implemented in six countries and economies: Cambodia, Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Kurdistan Region (Iraq), Mauritius, Rwanda and Zambia.
Test items were a mixture of multiple-choice questions and questions requiring students to construct their own responses. The items were organised in groups based on a passage setting out a real-life situation.
