Our tower of learning is leaning. Improving results is difficult but possible

September 8, 2026 — 6:00pm

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Spare a thought for Australia’s 15-year-olds. Life can be hard enough without representing the nation in international maths, science and reading tests, and then falling short of the 15-year-olds who attended school at the turn of the millennium by two and a half years.

In the latest OPEC Programme for International Assessment, the current cohort of high school students recorded their worst results in reading and mathematics. Science results across the country have flatlined.

Australia now ranks 11th in the world for reading and science and 17th for mathematics. The country was outperformed by Singapore, Poland and the United Kingdom in mathematics, and New Zealand, Ireland and Estonia in........

© The Sydney Morning Herald