The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released the results of its 2025 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which evaluates the skills of 15-year-old students around the world every three years.
The 2025 assessment involved more than 760,000 students, representing around 33 million young people in this age group across 91 countries and economies. Science was the main subject assessed this year, alongside reading and mathematics. The assessment also introduced a new area for the first time, computational thinking-based problem solving.
Morocco was among the education systems assessed, alongside four other African countries and several economies from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Morocco has participated in the PISA assessments for several editions, unlike countries such as Kenya, Rwanda and Zambia.
The Moroccan education system recorded some of the lowest scores worldwide in the 2025 assessment. Moroccan students scored an average of 358 points in science, 321 in reading and 355 in mathematics.
In science, Morocco ranked among the bottom 10% of the participating systems. Its average score of 358 points was well below the OECD average of 482. Morocco ranked ahead of only eight education systems: Kosovo (357), Paraguay (355), the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (352), Guatemala (351), Zambia (337), Kenya (335), Dushanbe in Tajikistan (334) and Rwanda (317).
Basic skills remain out of reach for many students
Morocco’s educational system significantly underperformed in recent assessments, particularly in reading, where students scored 321 points compared to an OECD average of 461. In mathematics, Moroccan students achieved 355 points, lagging behind the OECD average of 463.
In the newly introduced assessment area of computational thinking-based problem solving, Moroccan students scored 374 points, well below the OECD average of 500.
These results highlight Morocco’s high proportion of students who fail to master basic skills. Across science, reading, and mathematics combined, 73.2% of Moroccan students scored below Level 2, starkly contrasting with the OECD average of 19.7%.
Furthermore, only 0.1% of Moroccan students reached Level 5 or 6, which represent the highest-performing students, compared to 11.9% across the OECD.
Among the five African countries participating in PISA 2025—Morocco, Mauritius, Kenya, Rwanda, and Zambia—Morocco holds an intermediate position.
Morocco is notably ahead of Kenya (335 points in science), Zambia (337), and Rwanda (317). These three countries recorded the lowest science scores among all 91 participating systems.
However, Morocco remains significantly behind Mauritius, which scored 438 points in science, 405 in reading, and 407 in mathematics. Mauritius’s science score was 80 points higher than Morocco’s.
The disparity is also evident in student performance levels: 3% of Mauritian students were high-performing compared to 0.1% in Morocco, while 35.1% of Mauritian students were low-performing compared to 73.2% in Morocco.
A comparison with other MENA countries and economies participating in PISA 2025 reveals a more varied landscape. The United Arab Emirates led the regional group with 458 points in science, a full 100 points ahead of Morocco. The UAE also saw a 26-point increase since 2022, one of the largest gains among non-OECD countries.
Qatar (434 points), Saudi Arabia (413), and Jordan (407) also significantly outranked Morocco. These three countries showed improvements in science between 2022 and 2025, with increases of two, 23, and 32 points, respectively, while Morocco’s score fell by seven points during the same period.
Lebanon (372 points) and the Palestinian Authority (359) also scored higher than Morocco. The Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with 352 points, was the only MENA system in the report to record a lower score than Morocco.
The gap is particularly significant when examining the proportion of low-performing students. They accounted for 26.6% in the UAE, 35.8% in Qatar, and 44% in Saudi Arabia, in sharp contrast to Morocco’s 73.2%.
A downward trend since 2022
The report indicates a decline in Morocco’s short-term performance, as measured between PISA 2022 and 2025, across all three assessed areas. Science scores dropped by seven points, reading by 18 points, and mathematics by 10 points.
Notably, the 10-point decrease in mathematics in Morocco contrasts with an average OECD decline of 14 points over the same period.
This trend in Morocco is part of a broader global decline observed since the 2022 edition, which saw an unprecedented drop in PISA results. According to the report, the OECD’s average scores in science, reading, and mathematics are now at their lowest recorded levels since PISA’s inception in the late 1990s.
The report also positions Morocco intermediately in socio-economic terms. The PISA index of economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS) accounts for 9.1% of the variation in science performance in Morocco, compared to an 11.6% average across the OECD.
The achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students in Morocco is 55 points, a level comparable to that in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, both at 50 points.
However, this gap in Morocco widened between 2022 and 2025, increasing by 18 points. Over this period, the score of disadvantaged students fell by 13 points, while that of advantaged students increased by five points.
Gender differences reveal a distinct pattern in Morocco. Girls outperformed boys in all three assessed areas, with a three-point advantage in science, 17 points in reading, and two points in mathematics.
This contrasts with the OECD average, where boys outperform girls in mathematics by 13 points.
The school environment is another area where Morocco lags. The country recorded a negative disciplinary climate index of -0.20, compared to an OECD average of 0.14.
Only 31.9% of Moroccan students reported low levels of absenteeism, significantly lower than the 66.1% across the OECD.
Regarding material resources, only 12.4% of Moroccan students attend schools without material shortages, compared to an average of 43.8% across the OECD. This is one of the lowest rates among the education systems covered by the report.
Morocco also falls behind in schools’ ability to integrate digital tools, recording an index of -0.65, compared to the OECD average of -0.03.
However, Morocco is well above the OECD average concerning mobile phone restrictions. Approximately 81.8% of Moroccan students attend schools where mobile phones are banned, compared to 49.5% across OECD countries.
