Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, said Türkiye’s performance in the 2025 PISA cycle was a success story that the world should examine closely.
According to a statement from the Ministry of National Education, Schleicher congratulated teachers and school administrators in Türkiye in a video message released following the PISA 2025 results. He said the results were important not only for Türkiye but for the entire world because of the challenges facing education.
Average results rose in all three areas
Schleicher said Türkiye was one of the few education systems where student performance increased in all three areas—mathematics, reading and science. He said average results in these areas rose between 2022 and 2025.
Schleicher also said the share of low-performing students had declined significantly since 2015. He noted that this showed more students were able to acquire the basic skills needed for lifelong learning and future opportunities.
“We see a school system in motion”
Schleicher stressed that the results were not merely the product of a successful year, saying that Türkiye had a genuinely dynamic school system.
Stating that education provides a road map for a country’s future, Schleicher said the students currently in Türkiye’s classrooms would shape the country’s future as engineers, entrepreneurs, doctors, researchers, teachers and public officials.
Teacher support and the learning environment
Schleicher said seven out of every 10 students in Türkiye reported that their teachers took a close interest in their learning, continued explaining until they understood the subject and provided additional support when needed.
Schleicher said students viewed the learning environment in their classrooms more positively than they had 10 years earlier. He stressed that education was not merely a mechanical process of transferring knowledge from teacher to student, but a human process.
Curiosity and digital skills
Schleicher said PISA data showed that Turkish students were willing to explore new things, continued making an effort when faced with challenges and believed that abilities could be developed through effort, feedback and practice.
He said curiosity, perseverance, taking responsibility in the learning process and a growth mindset had become essential qualities for success in learning, work and life in a world where knowledge changes rapidly and artificial intelligence can generate answers within seconds.
Schleicher said Turkish students were willing users of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, and that the government’s prioritization of addressing device shortages could turn this potential into a significant advantage in the future.
Schleicher said the relationship between technology and learning depended on how technology was used. He noted that technology’s ultimate purpose should not be merely to make processes easier, but to develop students’ competencies.
Congratulating Türkiye’s education community on the results, Schleicher said the opportunity ahead was to move faster and further by ensuring that every child was included in this progress. He said the talent, imagination and potential in Türkiye’s classrooms were the country’s most valuable natural resource.
