Moldova’s Education Minister Dan Perciun has acknowledged serious weaknesses in students’ mathematics and reading performance following the publication of the PISA 2025 results, while highlighting a five-point improvement in science.
“I saw the PISA 2025 results and I am pleased that our students’ performance in science increased by five points compared with the previous edition. This shows how important investments in laboratories and equipment are,” Perciun said.
The minister added that Moldova’s students performed above other countries in the region in digital skills, narrowing the gap with the OECD average.
“However, there are also results that should concern us: weaker performance in mathematics and reading. This is a trend recorded in other participating countries as well, clearly showing that we need to improve our interventions in these areas,” Perciun said.
New Mathematics Curriculum and Estonian Textbooks
For mathematics, Perciun announced a new curriculum and the introduction of Estonian textbooks adapted for grades 1 through 12.
The ministry also plans to introduce mandatory training programmes for teachers who face difficulties teaching mathematics.
Regarding Romanian-language education, the minister highlighted the “Read Me 100 Stories” programme, through which more than 140,000 books have been distributed to 1,300 kindergartens across the country.
Since the beginning of the year, another 6.5 million lei has been allocated to purchase 60,000 new books for school libraries.
For the next period, Perciun announced two additional proposals: revising the ninth-grade examination content to place greater emphasis on competencies similar to those assessed by PISA, and optionally piloting 30 minutes of daily reading.
Students in Larger Schools Perform Better
Perciun also highlighted a significant gap between students attending large and small educational institutions.
“Students who study in large institutions score, on average, 60–65 points more than those in small institutions,” the minister said.
For this reason, the state will continue investing in “model schools, large schools with specialists and good infrastructure.”
The Government has also introduced a monthly payment of 1,000 lei for families that transfer their children from schools with fewer than 50 students to larger institutions.
Rural Students Lag Behind Their Urban Peers
The PISA 2025 results show a significant gap between students in rural and urban areas.
Students from villages performed more than 50 points worse than their peers in cities in both science and reading.
In science, urban students scored an average of 447 points, compared with 391 points among students from rural areas — a difference of 56 points.
PISA 2025 is an international assessment organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures the competencies of 15-year-old students in science, mathematics and reading.
A total of 6,640 15-year-old students from 273 educational institutions across Moldova took part in the assessment.