The results of the latest edition of the PISA Report, the major international education assessment published this Tuesday, have fallen like a bucket of cold water among the political class and experts in Colombia. Although the decline has been less pronounced than in the rest of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the report clarifies that part of it is related to the expansion of secondary education coverage to students from vulnerable backgrounds who were previously ineligible for the tests, reactions have focused on the dismay caused by the country’s continued lack of improvement in performance. Colombia remains far behind the nations of Europe and Asia that top the rankings.
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From early morning, press headlines followed one another with a negative tone. “Colombia fails the PISA 2025 tests with drops in Reading and Mathematics,” chose the newspaper El Tiempo. “Colombia remains stuck in learning and far from the average of evaluated countries,” selected El Espectador. “Colombia fails the PISA tests: only 1% of young people reach high levels,” headlined El Colombiano. The media reported that local reading results plummeted from 409 to 399 (equivalent to losing half a school year), while mathematics scores went from 383 points to 381 and science scores rose from 411 to 414. Unlike Spain, the deterioration slows compared to recent editions, but there is concern that it is not reversing. None of the three categories achieved a better score than in 2015.
Luz Karime Abadía, dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at Javeriana University, pointed out that local measurements “should raise alarms.” “Between 2022 and 2025, the results practically did not change. The problem is stagnation at very low levels,” she emphasized on X. “7 out of 10 young people aged 15 do not reach minimum competencies in mathematics,” she added, referring to data that contrasts with other countries — in Spain, despite its decline, 7 out of 10 do reach this level. This, the expert highlighted, “goes beyond the education sector.” “[Young people] will have fewer tools for university, employment, and an economy transformed by AI.”
From politics, something similar was emphasized by former senator and ex-presidential candidate Paloma Valencia. “In reading, only 49% reach the minimum. In the OECD those figures are 69% and 74%. We are forming a generation that does not have the basic tools to compete,” said the Uribista leader on X. She summarized the dismay: “Either we take quality seriously — curriculum, teachers, evaluation, school time, demand — or we will continue producing young people that the global market and AI will leave behind.”
Edna Bonilla, former Secretary of Education of Bogotá, also delved into this aspect. “A country that fails to strengthen the learning of its children and young people will have more difficulties forming the talent it needs, increasing productivity, innovating, generating quality jobs, and closing gaps. PISA is showing us a signal that would be irresponsible to ignore,” commented the academic, vice-presidential running mate of centrist Sergio Fajardo in the last elections, on X. She echoed the criticism that the report focuses on a few competencies but emphasized that recognizing this limitation “cannot become an excuse to ignore the results.”
A few referred to the results in the rest of the world, which has experienced a more pronounced decline — the OECD, on average, fell 3 points in science, 10 in mathematics, and 14 in reading. “Education in schools, in most countries, is going down. It happens in schools of high strata, in private schools, in public schools. It happens in South America, Europe, and Asia. Everywhere. What explains it?” asked Felipe Jiménez Ángel, former Secretary of Government of Bogotá. Although a few years ago experts attributed the impact to the pandemic, they increasingly study other factors with greater consideration, such as the increase in cell phone use and the loss of the ability to sustain concentration.
Walter Abondano, president of the Colombian Association of Private Education and principal of the Gimnasio Colombo Británico, proposed some hypotheses in an interview with Caracol Radio. “We have been privileging the use of electronic devices over paper and pencil. And the student learns by doing, not by watching,” he commented. “Countries with the best education set high expectations for students. It makes no sense to talk here about minimum learning,” he added. He also pointed out that private schools have also “declined in quality” in recent years.
Criticism of Petro
Philosopher Francisco Cajiao focused his analysis on the administration of Gustavo Petro, which ended last August 7. “He did very little for the quality of basic education. Great emphasis was placed on higher education, but there was really very little intervention in improving the quality of basic and secondary education, and this is felt and now evidenced,” he told the newspaper El Tiempo, of which he is a columnist. He also pointed out that Chile and Uruguay were able to improve their results. “It shows that the Colombian education system suffered a serious neglect,” he stressed.
Daniel Rojas Medellín, Petro’s last minister, defended on X that Colombia’s variations are not statistically significant and occur within a “worrying” global panorama. He also highlighted that the increase in students eligible for the test must be taken into account, in a context where the adolescent population is plummeting. “By including students with greater accumulated disadvantages, the national average may decrease even though the education of those already enrolled has not worsened,” he commented.
The attack on the teachers’ union
Several congressmen aligned with the government of Abelardo de la Espriella have taken advantage of the results to attack the Colombian Federation of Educators (Fecode), the union of public school teachers and one of the main bases of the left. “Shameful results for Colombia (…) Fecode and the current model have failed,” wrote congressman Daniel Briceño, from the Uribista Democratic Center, in a message on X in which he called for more teacher evaluations and the creation of a subsidy program to be granted directly to families to cover the costs of the school they choose, even if it is private. The also Uribista congressman David Cote attributed the results to, according to him, Fecode spending the last four years “doing politics.” “We have to reflect on education and specifically public education. Today it is not relevant, it does not respond to the realities of the country and much less to the world,” he declared during a parliamentary debate.
Fecode rejected the accusations. “As usual, they try to concentrate the debate on blaming teachers. The Colombian education system is that, a system, where many actors intervene,” it said in a statement demanding more coverage, more investment, and more support for teachers. “Today, the media interview dozens of politicians who have no idea about education and who only remember teaching to think about privatization,” it added.
Some independent or opposition congress members questioned their Uribista colleagues. Senator Jennifer Pedraza, from the centrist Dignity and Commitment, accused Briceño of “inventing problems” to justify the privatization of education. “Fecode and the teaching profession have been fighting for years against the cuts promoted by governments like those you have supported,” she wrote on X. Congresswoman María Fernanda Carrascal, from the Petroist Historic Pact, responded to Briceño that “strong and majority public systems are the basis of education in countries that top the PISA tests.” “We have enormous educational challenges. But facing them requires strengthening public education, not destroying it or turning its teachers into scapegoats.”
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The Ministry of Education has not yet commented on the report.
