On 8 September 2026, the OECD published PISA 2025 results, drawing on assessments of over 760,000 fifteen-year-olds across 91 countries and economies. In Turkey, 7,702 students in 203 schools participated, representing approximately 920,900 fifteen-year-olds — about 72% of that age group. The results look optimistic on the surface. Look closer, and important warnings emerge.
In this article I present the PISA 2025 Turkey data as it is: what is good, what is concerning, and what needs to change. And I address a dimension the data itself cannot fully capture: the critical role of early work experience in preparing Turkish students for global competition.
PISA 2025 Turkey Results: The Good News First
An honest assessment starts by acknowledging real progress. Turkey is among the few countries and economies where results improved in all three subjects between 2022 and 2025 — in mathematics, reading and science. This is not a trivial achievement.
| Subject | Turkey — Level 2+ Rate | OECD Average | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Science | 81% | 74% | +7 points above |
| Reading | 76% | 69% | +7 points above |
| Mathematics | 64% | 65% | Near OECD average |
The improvement since 2015 is even more striking: the share of low-performing students (below Level 2) fell by 16 percentage points in mathematics and by 25 percentage points in science. Turkey has made genuine progress in reducing its floor.
The Concerning Picture: Three Critical Findings
1. Top-Performer Rates Remain Far Behind Global Leaders
Level 2 in PISA represents the baseline proficiency threshold. But in global competition what matters is not just crossing the threshold — it is reaching the top tier. Here is Turkey's real picture:
| Subject | Turkey — Level 5-6 (Top Performers) | OECD Avg | Singapore | China (B-S-J-Z) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematics | 8% | 8% | 37% | 54% |
| Science | 7% | 7% | — | — |
| Reading | 4% | 6% | — | — |
Turkey is at the OECD average — but the countries it needs to compete with in the global labour market are not at the OECD average; they are in the top tier. In Singapore, 1 in 3 students reaches the highest mathematics levels. In Turkey, it is 1 in 12.
2. Computational Problem Solving: The AI-Era Skill — Below OECD Average
PISA 2025 measured computational problem solving for the first time — not coding, but algorithmic thinking, data interpretation and logical reasoning in digital environments. In the era when artificial intelligence is transforming the labour market, this skill is overtaking reading and mathematics in employer value. And Turkey scored below the OECD average.
A striking additional finding: 52% of students in Turkey use AI chatbots for schoolwork at least once a week (OECD: 46%). Tool usage is high, but computational thinking ability is low. This points to a generation that uses AI tools but has not yet developed the profile that creates value in an AI-driven world.
3. The Truancy Crisis: Students Are Disconnecting From School
One of the most striking Turkey findings in PISA 2025:
| Indicator | Turkey | OECD Average |
|---|---|---|
| Skipped at least one school day (2 weeks before test) | 53% | 22% |
| Skipped at least one class | 41% | 24% |
| Arrived late for school | 49% | 50% |
| Agree that "school has been a waste of time" | 28% | 24% |
One in two Turkish students skipped school even during the most critical period — the two weeks before the PISA assessment. And this rate has been unchanged since 2018: 52% in 2018, 53% in 2022, 53% in 2025.
This is not a random pattern — it is a structural problem. When students lose motivation, absenteeism follows. And at the root of this pattern is a school experience that has lost its connection to real life.
What PISA Cannot Measure: Readiness for Work
PISA is a powerful tool but a limited one: it measures academic knowledge and certain cognitive skills. It cannot measure many of the skills that determine success in working life — because those skills do not develop in a classroom.
Consider: we are a country where 81% of students reach baseline science proficiency. Yet employers routinely report that new graduates "don't know how to work on real projects", "struggle with deadline management", "can't communicate effectively with clients".
This contradiction is not coincidental. The gap between academic performance and workplace readiness is a structural feature of Turkey's education system — and it becomes even more visible when a student moves abroad, beginning at an international school in Dubai, the UK or elsewhere.
The Impact of Early Work Experience on Academic Performance
Within the PISA 2025 data, there is an illuminating finding: in Turkey, a one-unit increase in the goal-setting index is associated with a 7-point improvement in science performance — compared to an OECD average of 3 points. In other words, Turkish students who learn goal-oriented behaviour benefit from it at more than twice the OECD average rate.
Work life develops exactly these behaviours:
- Goal-setting: Every project has a deadline; every task requires a result
- Self-regulation: Learning to work without waiting for a reminder
- Real feedback: Not "you scored 87" but "rewrite this report" — consequences are immediate and concrete
- Problem-solving under pressure: Problems are not clean exam questions — they are messy and ambiguous
- Communication: Expressing an idea in writing and speech — the skill PISA cannot measure but employers pay for
Research consistently shows that students who engage with the working world early also show higher school attendance and engagement. The truancy data is worth recalling: when students cannot see why school matters, the connection breaks. A real project experience makes classroom subjects meaningful — the question "where will I use mathematics?" finds a concrete answer.
Closing the Computational Thinking Gap
Computational problem solving is the only area where Turkey scored below the OECD average in PISA 2025. It is also the hardest skill to teach in a classroom — because it cannot be taught without authentic context.
Computational thinking involves:
- Decomposing a complex problem into manageable steps
- Pattern recognition
- Translating a general solution into concrete algorithms
- Making decisions under ambiguity and incomplete information
All of these are situations encountered naturally in real work projects. A task like "categorise customer complaints and identify which product generates the most issues" is, in practice, a computational thinking exercise in a workplace setting.
EduEntry: Entering Work Life While Still at School
This is precisely where EduEntry comes in.
EduEntry is a platform that connects secondary and university students with genuine work experience while their school life continues. It provides internship opportunities in Dubai and international business environments — and does so within a structure that is compatible with the academic calendar.
Why does this matter? Because the majority of Turkish families — both in Turkey and abroad — view work experience as a post-university concern. But the skills that working life requires do not appear on graduation night or on the first day at a job. They are built over years, through real experience, and they compound when started early.
What Students Gain Through EduEntry
- Real project experience: Taking on responsibilities in a company environment, understanding team dynamics
- Computational thinking practice: Learning to structure ambiguous and complex problems
- English in professional contexts: Using the language that international schools demand — in its real setting
- CV and references: The strongest differentiator for Turkish students in university applications
- Motivation and school engagement: The answer to "why am I studying this?" becomes concrete
Recall the PISA 2025 data: 68% of students in Turkey report applying additional effort when work becomes challenging — compared to the OECD average of 60%. Turkish students' perseverance exceeds the OECD norm. The problem is not perseverance — it is the absence of meaningful goals and experiences to channel it into.
A Note for Turkish Families in Dubai
Over 5,000 Turkish students attend international schools in Dubai. Most are in KHDA Outstanding or Very Good-rated schools — academically, they are on solid ground. But in university applications, competing with peers from Singapore, India and the UK, grades alone are not enough.
Dubai's business ecosystem — from startups to multinationals, from tech firms to logistics giants — offers internship opportunities that match global standards. EduEntry makes this ecosystem accessible specifically for Turkish students.
A Practical Framework for Parents
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1
Can your child give a concrete answer to "why does school matter"? If not, absenteeism and motivation problems are inevitable. Work experience answers that question.
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2
Are the subjects being learned connected to real problems? Computational thinking comes from real projects, not textbooks. PISA 2025 confirmed this numerically.
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3
What will differentiate your child in a university application? Among British, American and Singaporean peers, the strongest differentiator for Turkish students is real work experience and strong references.
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4
How risky is "let's wait until university" for internships? Students who start early arrive at university having already completed the initial learning curve. Late starters go through that curve during their degree years.
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5
Have you explored EduEntry? Internship programmes in Dubai and international environments, aligned with the academic calendar, designed for Turkish students.
Conclusion: Reading PISA Correctly
PISA 2025 says this about Turkey: we are progressing in baseline competency. That is real and important. But the same data also says: we lag in computational thinking, our top-performer rates are far behind global leaders, and one in two students is failing to form a genuine connection with school.
The solution to this picture is not only better exam preparation. The solution is connecting students to the real world while they are still in school — giving them a concrete experience that answers "why am I learning this?".
Early participation in working life creates the most natural learning environment for the skills PISA measures but the system does not sufficiently develop — goal-setting, self-regulation, computational thinking. And EduEntry makes this opportunity accessible to Turkish students.
