An explanation solution is missing after the new Pisa landslide

The previous global decline in Pisa results could be explained by the pandemic. Now, no such simple explanation can be given.

The OECD has already carried out analyzes on whether it is the decline in reading comprehension that can explain the loss. But there is currently no single factor that can be singled out. On the other hand, there are several threads to pursue, according to the National Education Agency.

- One such could be that students have greater problems with tasks that require endurance, says head of analysis Anna Castberg.

She highlights the role of mobile phones and the deteriorating reading habits of both adults and children as possible contributory causes.

- But what is required now are in-depth analyses, she says.

The sudden Pisaraset also came as a surprise. When the latest international knowledge measurement for mathematics, Timss 2023, was presented in December 2024, Swedish students in grade 4 and grade 8 had improved in mathematics.

The OECD has carried out special checks and analyses, but has not been able to see that there are any methodological errors in this year's round of the Pisa surveys.

For Liberal party leader Simona Mohamsson, it is easier to see the connections.

- The reason for this is that we are in a screen pandemic, where every third Swedish fifteen-year-old cannot read properly, she says, and links the decline to the fact that the use of digital devices has displaced real books.

- We know that screens make it difficult for children to concentrate. They find it harder to sit still and read a book because it does not provide the same reward as when they scroll through social media.

According to the Swedish National Agency for Education and the OECD, it is one of several possible explanations. Across the OECD, the number of cases where students rush through texts and give quick but incorrect answers has almost doubled.

Skimming through social media and quickly processing information may have weakened the very abilities that students need in the AI ​​age, says, for example, Pisa head Andreas Schleicher.

- As reading comprehension is important to be able to absorb the information in other subjects as well, the loss in reading comprehension is particularly worrying, says Anna Castberg, head of analysis at the Swedish National Agency for Education.

Just the use of social media has a connection with worse results in the Pisa measurements.

The falling Pisa results should sail up and become a hot issue in the election campaign, says Simona Mohamsson.

- On Sunday we face a screen election in Sweden. Where the Liberals want less screens in school and the opposition wants more. It is the vaccine that our children need against this screen pandemic, she says, taking Britain as an example:

- It is one of the few countries that does not lose in this measurement. Ten years ago they implemented much of what we liberals are now implementing in government, such as replacing screens in classrooms with real books.