PISA 2025: Ticino holds steady, but more students struggle

The Department of Education, Culture and Sport (DECS) has released Ticino's results from the PISA 2025 survey, which every three years measures the skills of fifteen-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science. The comparison covers 91 countries.

In mathematics, Ticino scores 492 points, above the OECD average of 463. In reading, Ticino reaches 470 points, in line with both the OECD average (461) and the Swiss result (470). In science, the main focus of this edition, Ticino scores 492 points: above the OECD average (482) and slightly below the Swiss average (501), a difference the DECS says is not statistically significant.

These results place the canton among the top twenty countries worldwide in science and reading, and among the top ten in mathematics.

Falling scores

Compared with the 2022 edition, however, Ticino's scores have declined: by about 16.5 points in science, 24.1 in reading and 22.9 in mathematics. The DECS notes that this decline should be seen in a broader context, since it also affects Switzerland as a whole and the OECD average.

At the same time, the share of students with insufficient skills, meaning below level 2 on the PISA scale, is growing. In Ticino, this applies to 20.3% of students in science, 24.4% in mathematics and 27.2% in reading. These shares are in line with those recorded at the Swiss level.

The PISA survey is carried out in Ticino by the Centro competenze innovazione e ricerca sui sistemi educativi (CIRSE) of the Dipartimento formazione e apprendimento/Alta scuola pedagogica (DFA/ASP) at SUPSI, on behalf of the DECS. For the first time, the 2025 edition included a module on learning in the digital world.