Basic skills among 15-year-olds across the EU have been slipping for years, the European Commission says in its analysis of the PISA 2025 results, the EC Representation in Bulgaria reported.
The data show 33.9% of EU students fail to reach basic level in maths, 31.3% in reading and 25.9% in science. The EU wants to cut the share of poor performers below 15% in each subject by 2030.
Top performers are rare too: just 6.8% in maths, 6.4% in science and 4.8% in reading. The EU wants at least 12% in each subject by 2030. Only two EU countries hit the maths target, and none reached it in reading or science.
Disadvantaged students are about four times more likely to score poorly in science than their better-off peers, the analysis shows.
More than 760,000 students from 91 countries and regions took part in the study, aged between 15 years 3 months and 16 years 2 months. PISA does not test subject knowledge but how well students can apply what they learn at school to real-life situations, said Kalin Baev, Bulgaria's national coordinator for the study.
Bulgarian students scored 421 points in science, 405 in maths and 387 in reading. The education ministry released the figures on September 8.
"These results show there's a problem with Bulgaria's education model," education minister professor Georgi Valchev told a news conference, where he also pointed to falling scores in maths and reading.
The analysis will feed into a new EU plan for schools. It will help schools and teachers deal with the drop in basic skills. The plan will also build artificial intelligence literacy into teaching more systematically.