By Wally Sarkeesian
The numbers are finally here, and they are difficult to ignore. So perhaps the problem isn’t the children. it is the uneducated, corrupt leadership
For the first time, Armenia participated in the OECD’s PISA assessment, which measures what 15-year-old students can actually do in mathematics, reading, and science—not simply what they have memorized in school. The 2025 assessment included 91 countries and economies, with 6,804 Armenian students from 293 schools participating.
The results should be a wake-up call.
Armenia’s scores:
Science: 377
Mathematics: 368
Reading: 327
The OECD averages are approximately:
Science: 485
Mathematics: 472
Reading: 476
In other words, Armenia is dramatically below the OECD average in all three areas.
But perhaps the most disturbing number is reading.
Only 19% of Armenian 15-year-olds reached the basic Level 2 proficiency in reading, compared with 69% across OECD countries. In mathematics and science, only 28% of Armenian students reached Level 2, compared with 65% in mathematics and 74% in science across the OECD.
And there is another important comparison.
Armenia vs. Georgia
Georgia, which also participated in PISA 2025, scored:
| Armenia | Georgia | |
|---|---|---|
| Science | 377 | 430 |
| Mathematics | 368 | 406 |
| Reading | 327 | 417 |
The reading gap is an astonishing 90 points.
This is not a small difference that can simply be explained away. It should force Armenia to ask some very serious questions about its education system.
But there is something else worth examining.
The OECD results do not say that Armenian children are incapable of learning.
Quite the opposite.
72% of Armenian students said they are curious about many different things, and 65% said they put in additional effort when schoolwork becomes difficult—higher than the OECD average of 60%. Armenian students also reported strong levels of teacher support.
So perhaps the problem isn’t the children.
Perhaps we need to look much more seriously at the system educating them.
The OECD reports that 49% of Armenian students attend schools where principals say shortages of educational materials hinder instruction, while 39% are in schools where infrastructure shortages are reported as a problem.
And there is another extraordinary statistic: approximately 58% of Armenian students reported skipping at least one day of school during the two weeks before the PISA test, compared with 22% across OECD countries.
These numbers deserve much more than political arguments.
They deserve an honest national conversation.
What happened to Armenian education?
Armenia has a proud intellectual tradition. Armenians have produced scientists, engineers, mathematicians, doctors, artists and scholars whose achievements extend far beyond the country’s size.
We should therefore be asking why today’s 15-year-olds are performing so far below international standards.
And we should not blame the children.
The children did not design the education system.
They did not write the curriculum.
They did not train the teachers.
They did not decide how schools are managed.
They did not determine what resources schools receive.
The PISA results are a measurement of a system.
And the system needs serious examination.
Armenia’s first PISA results should not be used simply as ammunition against one political party or another. They should be treated as a national emergency signal.
Because governments come and go.
But the children educated—or failed—by the system today will determine what Armenia looks like tomorrow.
This is not about politics.
This is about Armenia’s future.
Source: OECD, PISA 2025 Results, released September 8, 2026.
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