The reading proficiency of 15-year-old students in South Korea has seen a significant decline over a three-year period.

According to the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 released by the OECD, South Korea's average reading score stood at 501, dropping 14 points compared to the previous survey in 2022.

The average reading score for OECD member countries was 461, placing South Korea's national ranking in reading between 1st and 9th.

The decline in reading proficiency is analyzed to be a global phenomenon rather than a trend unique to South Korea.

Singapore, which ranked first in average scores consecutively in 2022 and 2025, also dropped from 543 to 535 over the three years.

Japan, which ranked second three years ago, also fell from 516 to 503.

Experts analyze that students have been affected by the worldwide increase in the use of digital media.

An official from the Ministry of Education explained, "With the increased use of digital media and social media, factors such as reading motivation and attitude appear to have had a combined impact."

PISA is an international assessment and comparison program designed to evaluate the reading, mathematics, and science literacy of 15-year-old students.

The 2025 survey, conducted over three years, involved approximately 760,000 students from 91 countries, including 38 OECD member countries.

In South Korea, the survey was conducted on 6,859 students across 196 schools.

South Korea followed the OECD member country trends in science and reading, while the proportion of students at both the high and low achievement levels increased in mathematics.

An official from the Ministry of Education stated, "We plan to revitalize reading education connected with classes and expand initiatives supporting a classroom culture centered on questions and discussions so that students can build the competence to read and communicate."

Reported by Park Se-won | Video by Kim Min-ji | Graphics by Lee Jung-joo | Produced by SBS Digital News