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Sep 10, 2026 · 6 min

PISA 2025: falling maths scores, France near average?

PISA 2025: follow this podcast through the article’s account of France’s results, from average standing and falling maths scores to ideas for linking maths to everyday life.

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  1. Speaker 1

    Welcome to the podcast from Tangente magazine and thanks so much for joining us. Imagine you are at a pizzeria. A 30 centimeter pizza costs 30 zeds and a 40 centimeter pizza costs 40 zeds. Which is the better deal?

  2. Speaker 2

    Well, that is the big question, right?

  3. Speaker 1

    Yeah, exactly. Today we are doing a deep dive into a stack of sources, including the newly released 2025 PISA test results. We really want to figure out why 15 year olds around the world are suddenly struggling to answer questions exactly like this one.

  4. Speaker 2

    Right, because it sounds so simple at first.

  5. Speaker 1

    It does. Our mission for this deep dive is to explore this steep global decline in math scores and see how reconnecting mathematics to everyday reality might just be the solution. OK, let's unpack this.

  6. Speaker 2

    Yeah, so that pizza scenario is actually a classic from a past PISA test, and it really captures what this global assessment is trying to measure. They are looking for mathematical literacy in real world scenarios, not just abstract equations.

  7. Speaker 1

    Right. Not just formulas on a chalkboard. So let's actually answer the pizza question. The bigger pizza is obviously the better deal. But on the test, students have to explain why.

  8. Speaker 2

    Exactly. And the core reasoning there is that the area of a circle is measured in square centimeters and that area grows quadratically.

  9. Speaker 1

    Oh, meaning it increases way faster than the diameter does.

  10. Speaker 2

    Yeah, totally. Because it grows quadratically, you actually end up paying a significantly lower price per square centimeter for that 40 centimeter pizza.

  11. Speaker 1

    See, this is what I love about this approach. I mean, it is not abstract algebra. This is basically just basic consumer survival of the grocery store.

  12. Speaker 2

    It really is.

  13. Speaker 1

    But, well, if the test is grounded in that kind of everyday grocery store logic, the recent score drop implies something pretty worrying. We aren't just forgetting complex formulas. We are actually losing our grip on basic real world reasoning.

  14. Speaker 2

    Which brings us to the 2025 data.

  15. Speaker 1

    Right.

  16. Speaker 2

    And the data paints a pretty stark picture of that loss. Across all 37 participating OECD countries, there has been this steady global decline. Like back in 2003, the average math score was 502. Okay. But now in 2025, it has fallen all the way down to 463. Wow,

  17. Speaker 1

    that is a massive drop. And looking at the breakdown in our notes, France is a really interesting case study here. They tested 6,501 students across 302 schools.

  18. Speaker 2

    Yeah, huge sample size.

  19. Speaker 1

    And they managed to track right along with that new OECD average. But their own national score still plummeted from 511 down to 458.

  20. Speaker 2

    What's fascinating here is how quickly officials pivot to familiar scapegoats when interpreting those numbers. Like the education minister essentially blamed passive screen time.

  21. Speaker 1

    Oh, right. Arguing that students are endlessly scrolling social media instead of engaging deeply with the material.

  22. Speaker 2

    Exactly.

  23. Speaker 1

    Honestly, our sources push back on that quite a bit. They argue that blaming screens might just be a really convenient distraction.

  24. Speaker 2

    Yeah, they suggest the real problem could be the curriculum itself.

  25. Speaker 1

    Right, like we are teaching math as this set of arbitrary rules completely divorced from its concrete origins. Things like surveying land, dividing property, or managing trade.

  26. Speaker 2

    That is a crucial distinction. Because when you strip away that physical context, you are basically just left with pure abstraction. And if that rising level of abstraction is what is driving the decline, the remedy isn't just taking away phones.

  27. Speaker 1

    Right, that won't fix it.

  28. Speaker 2

    No, it means returning to visual, tangible examples that make math accessible again.

  29. Speaker 1

    Well, here's where it gets really interesting. Tangente magazine's analysis suggests the best way to do this is by highlighting everyday geometry. Like take a pyramid, for example.

  30. Speaker 2

    Oh, sure. Usually you just memorize the volume formula for that. You know, base times height divided by three.

  31. Speaker 1

    Exactly. But why divided by three?

  32. Speaker 2

    Well, because if you take a standard 3D box, a prism with that exact same base and height, you can fit exactly three identical pyramids inside it.

  33. Speaker 1

    Wait, really? They fit perfectly?

  34. Speaker 2

    Perfectly. So it is not just some random number to memorize for a test. It is a literal physical relationship in space.

  35. Speaker 1

    That makes so much more sense. The magazine also mentions those massive cooling towers at power plants. You know, they have that specific pinched curve shape.

  36. Speaker 2

    Oh yeah, like a Diabolo, that little spinning toy on a string.

  37. Speaker 1

    Exactly. But why on earth would power plants use the shape of a child's toy instead of just, I don't know, building a straight cylinder?

  38. Speaker 2

    Well, in formal geometric terms, that shape is actually known as a hyperboloid of revolution.

  39. Speaker 1

    A hyperboloid of revolution. Yeah. OK.

  40. Speaker 2

    Yeah. And it is an absolute structural marvel. That inward curve naturally accelerates the rising steam. So it creates this highly efficient updraft for cooling the plant.

  41. Speaker 1

    Oh, wow. I never even thought about the airflow.

  42. Speaker 2

    Right. Plus, that specific geometry provides immense stability against the wind, all while requiring significantly less concrete than a straight wall would.

  43. Speaker 1

    That is just brilliant.

  44. Speaker 2

    If we connect this to the bigger picture, knowing the formal term hyperboloid is honestly much less important than just recognizing these structural patterns in the world around you and understanding why they work.

  45. Speaker 1

    So what does this all mean?

  46. Speaker 2

    It means that to reverse this decline in mathematical literacy, we really need to stop presenting math as a sterile language of textbooks. We have to show it in its best, most practical light as a tangible tool for decoding the physical world.

  47. Speaker 1

    And that brings us right back to you. If our daily environment is constantly shaped by complex geometry from the price of your pizza to the architecture of the power grid, what other hidden mathematical structures are you interacting with right now without even realizing it?

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