Danish 15-year-olds have recorded their weakest results ever in reading, math and science in this year’s PISA study, which also shows more lateness and more skipped school days.
The findings from the international PISA study were published this week, DR reports. The study, carried out every three years, measures the skills of 15-year-olds in large parts of the world. Danish students scored 460 in reading, 471 in math and 478 in science, the lowest Danish figures on record.
Reading was the area with the sharpest drop. Vibeke Tornhøj Christensen, senior researcher at the research center VIVE, told DR that researchers were surprised by the size of the decline. She said weaker readers can struggle to extract information from a text that is not simple.
According to TV 2, 29 percent of Danish students were classified as low-performing in reading, 28 percent in math and 25 percent in science. Between one in three and one in four Danish students now falls into the low-performing category overall, per the Danish researchers behind the report.
Christensen said students in that group can find it harder to function in society and to use the knowledge they have. Gordon Ørskov Madsen, chair of Danmarks Lærerforening, described the development as a disaster unfolding almost in slow motion. He said teachers see many students with special needs who struggle to settle down and concentrate.
Lateness and skipped days
Alongside the tests, students answered questions about their school day. Sixty percent said they had arrived late within the previous two weeks. 28 percent said they had skipped a full school day in that same period, adding to the debate over school absenteeism in Denmark.
Andreas Rasch-Christensen, research director at VIA University College, called the absence figures alarming. He sits on the steering group for the Danish PISA consortium. He said schools need to talk thoroughly with students and parents about what it means to attend school.
Rasch-Christensen said there is nothing uplifting in the results and that they point to a Danish folkeskole in an academic crisis. He noted that scores are also falling in many other countries, including the Nordic ones Denmark usually compares itself with. Denmark, however, has seen the largest decline in the Nordics since the last PISA study in 2022.
Asked whether students are getting less intelligent, Rasch-Christensen said that cannot be concluded. He said they arrive with different conditions, including a stronger focus on social media, which at times brings problems with motivation and concentration. Debate over phones in schools has run alongside the falling results.
On what can be done, Rasch-Christensen said there is no single button to turn. He said the school system needs a broad academic lift, covering funding, teachers and teacher education.
