Why Swiss school performance is slipping despite strong results

499 points in mathematics and 470 in reading keep Switzerland above the OECD average, yet the direction of travel has changed. The latest PISA results show a school system that still performs strongly in international comparisons while losing ground in skills pupils need every day.

Swiss 15-year-olds scored about 4% lower in mathematics and reading than they did in 2015. Mathematics fell from 521 to 499 points. Reading dropped from 492 to 470. Science has proved more resilient, edging down from 503 to 501 points.

The country remains highly placed among 91 participating countries and economies: ninth in mathematics, 13th in model-based problem-solving, 14th in science and roughly 18th in reading. Those rankings offer useful context, yet they do not erase the decline. Switzerland has a wealthy economy, a long-established vocational pathway and a decentralised school system that generally produces strong results. Its leaders now have to explain why the foundations are weakening.

The immediate concern sits at the bottom of the distribution. 29% of pupils failed to reach the required reading level, while 23% fell short in mathematics and 21% in science. These are the pupils most likely to struggle with further education, apprenticeships and the demands of work.

Basic literacy and numeracy are becoming a shared concern for schools, employers and trade unions. Christophe Darbellay, the Valais education minister and president of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education, has argued that schools may have taken on too many competing responsibilities. “Perhaps we have spread ourselves a little too thin,” he told RTS.

That diagnosis has found support beyond cantonal education departments. Travail.Suisse has connected reading and mathematics to equal opportunity and employability. The Swiss Union of Arts and Crafts wants those subjects returned to a more central place in compulsory schooling. Economiesuisse has reported weaknesses in reading and arithmetic among some young people entering vocational training, although its survey was not representative.

The concern matters particularly in Switzerland, where apprenticeships form a major route into skilled employment. A teenager who cannot follow a technical text, interpret instructions or calculate reliably faces difficulty before formal training has properly begun. Employers may respond with additional remedial instruction, narrower recruitment or greater reliance on already well-prepared applicants.

PISA cannot identify the precise classroom practice behind each result. It does show that the system’s strongest reputation cannot substitute for consistent mastery of core skills across the full pupil population.

Social background, migration history and the language spoken at home remain closely tied to attainment. Pupils who do not speak the language of instruction at home can face an extra barrier before they begin to tackle the curriculum. Children from poorer families also tend to have fewer resources outside school to reinforce reading, homework and academic support.

The latest figures contain a misleading sign of progress. The gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils has narrowed since 2022, according to the source report. That change has partly resulted from weaker performance among better-off pupils. A smaller gap created by decline at the top does little to improve the prospects of children who were already struggling.

Switzerland’s cantonal structure gives local authorities significant responsibility for schools, while the country’s linguistic regions bring different classroom languages and institutional traditions. The available figures do not establish that one canton or language region caused the national decline. They do underline the importance of early language support, targeted help for disadvantaged families and reliable standards across compulsory education.

A system can remain internationally competitive while leaving too many pupils below the level needed to understand complex texts or solve routine mathematical problems. Those pupils are the clearest measure of whether school is delivering equal opportunity.