The Philippines posted the fastest improvement in reading performance among education systems assessed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), gaining an estimated 38 points over a 10-year period, according to the Department of Education (DepEd).
The improvement, equivalent to about two additional years of schooling, marked the country’s strongest long-term gain across the three core PISA subjects and reversed its position at the bottom of the 2018 Reading rankings.
The Philippines also recorded long-term gains in Mathematics and Science, improving by 25 and 22 points, respectively, according to DepEd’s summary of the OECD findings.
“While we celebrate being named the global top improver in Reading, we view this not as a finish line, but as validation that our direction is working,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara said.
“We still have a long way to go, but our learners have proven that given the right support, they can leap forward,” he added.
The country was among only eight education systems that improved in all three domains between the 2022 and 2025 PISA cycles. The other systems were Georgia, Cambodia, Jordan, Montenegro, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and Türkiye.
The Philippines ranked last in Reading among 79 participating countries and economies in the 2018 PISA assessment, its first participation in the international test.
OECD Director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher said no country had improved its Reading skills faster than the Philippines, with the gains representing nearly two years of additional learning compared with Filipino 15-year-olds when the country first joined PISA in 2018, DepEd said.
The PISA 2025 results showed the Philippines with national average scores of 367 in Reading, 371 in Mathematics and 373 in Science.
The proportion of Filipino students reaching at least baseline proficiency also increased across all three subjects. Reading proficiency rose to 31%, up seven percentage points from 2022, while Science increased to 32%, up nine points. Mathematics rose to 21%, a five-point increase.
Despite the improvements, the majority of Filipino 15-year-olds remained below baseline proficiency in all three core domains.
The Philippines outperformed 18 education systems in Reading, 16 in Mathematics and 14 in Science, according to DepEd.
The country also recorded gains in Computational Problem Solving, with 34% of students reaching baseline proficiency. DepEd said 70% of Filipino learners performed above expectations based on their Science performance, a result it said was comparable with some of the world’s higher-performing education systems.
DepEd said it would expand literacy interventions to sustain the gains, including the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program, distribution of storybooks to Kindergarten to Grade 3 pupils, Reading Nooks in schools and the Bayang Bumabasa foundational literacy program.
The department also reported improvements in students’ learning environments. Reports of physical bullying declined by 17 percentage points between 2018 and 2025, while more than 86% of Filipino learners reported positive teacher support, including teachers providing additional help when students do not understand lessons.###
