In a nation where students are known for their discipline and persistence, Vietnam's 2025 PISA results reveal a quieter crisis: nearly six in ten fifteen-year-olds cannot yet use what they read to navigate the demands of modern life. Measured against a global cohort of 765,000 students across 91 countries, Vietnamese readers fall nearly 30 percentage points below the international baseline for functional literacy. The numbers invite a deeper question — not merely about test scores, but about what it means to equip a generation to think, reason, and participate fully in the world they are inher
Vietnam's reading crisis: 59% of students lack basic comprehension skills
Reading skill is not the province of literature teachers alone
Mark
So 59 percent of Vietnamese students can't really read at a functional level. That's a staggering number. What does Level 2 actually mean in practice?
Mimi
It's the minimum. A student at Level 2 can find the main idea in a text of moderate length, locate information even when the criteria are complex, and think about why a writer made certain choices. It's not advanced. It's baseline.
Luke
But we should note—the ministry is saying the test format changed this year, from paper to computer. That could account for some of the drop. We don't know how much.
Mimi
True. But even if you discount some of the decline, 41 percent reaching that threshold is still far below the OECD average of 71 percent. That's a real gap.
Mark
Why does reading matter so much more than the other subjects here?
Mimi
Because reading is the tool for everything else. If you can't read carefully, you can't solve a word problem in math. You can't understand what a scientific text is telling you. You can't follow instructions online.
Luke
The ministry actually said that explicitly—reading comprehension isn't just a literature problem. It's a cross-subject problem.
Mark
So what's the fix?
Mimi
The ministry is saying teachers need to expose students to different kinds of information—texts, tables, images, data—and assess them regularly. And shift away from memorization toward critical thinking.
Luke
Which sounds good in theory. But implementation is always the question. And we don't know yet whether these recommendations will actually move the needle.
Mark
Is Vietnam alone in this struggle?
Mimi
No. The assessment involved 91 countries. China and Singapore are leading in reading and math. Vietnam's scores are notably lower, but this is a global assessment, so there's a spectrum.
Luke
Worth noting: Vietnam has participated in PISA since 2012. This is the first time on computer. So we're comparing apples to oranges in some ways.
O Pulso
- Only 41% of Vietnamese fifteen-year-olds can read well enough to extract meaning, follow complex instructions, or think critically about a text — a gap of nearly 30 points below the OECD average.
- Scores fell between 15 and 70 points across all subjects since 2022, raising urgent questions about whether the education system is moving in the wrong direction.
- The ministry attributes part of the decline to Vietnam's first-ever shift from paper to computer-based testing, but acknowledges the format change alone cannot fully account for the drop.
- Reading emerges as the sharpest vulnerability — while science scores match the OECD average and math falls only 7 points short, literacy remains the fault line running beneath every other subject.
- The ministry is pushing for a fundamental shift in classroom culture: less memorization, more reasoning — exposing students to diverse information types and training them to explain, question, and solve rather than simply recall.
In a nation where students are known for their discipline and persistence, Vietnam's 2025 PISA results reveal a quieter crisis: nearly six in ten fifteen-year-olds cannot yet use what they read to navigate the demands of modern life. Measured against a global cohort of 765,000 students across 91 countries, Vietnamese readers fall nearly 30 percentage points below the international baseline for functional literacy. The numbers invite a deeper question — not merely about test scores, but about what it means to equip a generation to think, reason, and participate fully in the world they are inheriting.
Vietnam's 2025 PISA results, released this week by the OECD, paint a sobering portrait of reading comprehension among the country's fifteen-year-olds. Of the more than 7,350 students tested across 194 secondary schools, only 41 percent reached Level 2 — the minimum threshold PISA considers necessary to function in a modern economy. The OECD average is 71 percent. That nearly 30-point gap places Vietnam's young readers well outside the range of their global peers.
The implications reach beyond literature class. A student who cannot extract meaning from a complex text will stumble over word problems in math, misread scientific instructions, and struggle to interpret charts or digital information. The Ministry of Education and Training acknowledged this directly, framing reading not as a single subject's responsibility but as the foundational skill that determines whether students can learn anything else effectively.
Scores across all subjects fell between 15 and 70 points compared to the 2022 assessment — a significant slide. The ministry offered a partial explanation: this was Vietnam's first year using computer-based testing, a format meaningfully different from the paper exams students had prepared for. Whether the screen shift accounts for the full decline remains an open question.
The picture is less alarming in other subjects. Fifty-eight percent of students reached the math threshold, just 7 points below the OECD average, and science scores matched the international benchmark at 71 percent. Reading stands alone as the acute pressure point.
The ministry's response leaned toward structural change rather than remediation. Teachers are encouraged to present students with varied information formats — texts, tables, images, data — and to prioritize reasoning and critical thinking over rote memorization. Officials also cautioned against reducing PISA to yet another exam to study for, recognizing the trap that high-stakes international assessments can become.
Amid the difficult numbers, the ministry pointed to genuine strengths: Vietnamese students are persistent, value learning, seek help from teachers and peers, and adapt readily to new technologies. These qualities matter. But they cannot substitute for the ability to read deeply — the skill that, more than any other, determines what a student can ultimately do with everything else they are taught.
Vietnam's fifteen-year-olds are struggling with reading in ways that extend far beyond literature class. According to the 2025 Program for International Student Assessment released this week by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, nearly six in ten Vietnamese students cannot take what they read and use it to solve actual problems—whether that means extracting the main idea from a moderately long text, finding information buried in complex criteria, or thinking critically about why a writer chose certain words or structures.
The assessment tested more than 7,350 students across 194 secondary schools in Vietnam as part of a global evaluation involving roughly 765,000 fifteen-year-olds from 91 countries and economies. The Vietnamese cohort scored an average of 392 points in reading, placing them well below international benchmarks. Only 41 percent of these students reached Level 2 or above—the baseline threshold that PISA considers the minimum proficiency needed to function in a modern economy. The OECD average for students hitting that mark is 71 percent. Vietnam's gap is nearly 30 percentage points.
The numbers tell a wider story about how reading comprehension bleeds into every subject. A student who cannot extract key information from text will struggle with word problems in mathematics. One who cannot read carefully will misunderstand scientific phenomena or fail to follow instructions on a map or chart or website. The Ministry of Education and Training acknowledged this reality in its response to the results, noting that reading skill is not the province of literature teachers alone. It is a foundational competency that shapes whether students can learn anything else well.
The ministry also offered a caveat about the severity of the decline. Scores dropped between 15 and 70 points across all subjects since the last PISA assessment in 2022—a significant slide. But Vietnam switched from paper-based to computer-based testing for the first time this year, and the ministry argued that the two formats differ substantially enough that the score gap alone cannot prove the education system has deteriorated. The shift to screens may have disadvantaged students unfamiliar with that mode of assessment. Whether that explains the full decline remains unclear.
In mathematics and science, the picture is somewhat less dire. Fifty-eight percent of Vietnamese students reached Level 2 or above in mathematics, compared with an OECD average of 65 percent. In science, 71 percent hit the threshold, matching the OECD average. Reading stands apart as the acute vulnerability.
The ministry's response focused on solutions rather than blame. Teachers should expose students to diverse types of information—written texts, tables, images, data—and assess them regularly so struggling readers get help quickly. More fundamentally, instruction should shift toward the kind of thinking PISA measures: asking students to explain their reasoning, process information, solve problems, and think critically rather than simply memorize. The ministry warned against turning PISA itself into another test to cram for, a common pitfall when international assessments become high-stakes.
The ministry also pointed to strengths in the Vietnamese system that the data revealed. Students value learning and persist through difficulty. They actively seek support from teachers and peers. They adapt quickly to new technologies. Teachers monitor their students closely. These are real assets. But they are not enough to overcome a fundamental gap in reading comprehension—the skill that unlocks everything else.
Citações Notáveis
Students need to improve their reading comprehension skills across all subjects. This is not only the responsibility of literature classes.— Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training
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