Austerity and Privatization Weakened OECD Education Systems

OECD PISA education performance: change in scores between 2009 to 2025, and 2025 scores. Opinion by Isabel Ortiz, Antonia Wulff (brussels / geneva)Monday, October 05, 2026Inter Press Service BRUSSELS / GENEVA, October 5 (IPS) - The results of the OECD PISA 2025 report point to the marked deterioration of results in countries whose education systems were once considered exemplary. Isabel OrtizPISA assesses how students aged 15 apply skills in reading, mathematics, and science to real-life situations, and the latest report contains the lowest averages ever measured in all three subjects across the OECD (as illustrated in the graph above).Public debate has rushed to blame the use of AI and social media, but the deterioration long predates them.In many countries, this decline has unfolded alongside years of austerity cuts and growing pressures on public education systems, including public spending, teacher pay and working conditions, staffing and the capacity of schools to provide quality education.These austerity cuts and cost-containment reforms started after the 2008 financial crisis, when governments mobilized emergency support for the financial sector, in loans, capital and guaran...