New Zealand’s latest education data shows a notable narrowing of the achievement gap between students from disadvantaged and more advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, according to a new government statement based on the OECD’s PISA 2025 results.

The New Zealand government said students in the lowest socioeconomic quartile made particularly strong progress between 2022 and 2025. Their improvement was equivalent to roughly one year of learning in science, three terms in mathematics and six months in reading.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the improvement was being driven largely by stronger performance among students at the lower end of the achievement scale, rather than a decline among the country’s highest-performing students. The government described the development as an encouraging change after years of educational decline.

Official New Zealand education data shows that the country’s average 2025 scores were 509 in science, 480 in mathematics and 497 in reading. Science performance was above the OECD average, while mathematics and reading results were broadly similar to those recorded in 2022.

The OECD’s independent country assessment also confirms that the socioeconomic achievement gap became smaller between 2022 and 2025, although significant disparities remain. The OECD notes that New Zealand students from the top socioeconomic quarter continued to outperform those from the bottom quarter in science.

Another positive indicator highlighted by the New Zealand government is school attendance. Regular attendance during Term 2 increased from 39.6% in 2022 to 64.3% in 2026, a development the government says may have contributed to improved educational outcomes.

However, the latest results do not mean that New Zealand’s education challenges have disappeared. Government officials acknowledge that overall performance remains below levels recorded around 15 years ago. The OECD likewise reports continuing concerns, including the relatively high proportion of students performing below baseline proficiency in mathematics and the long-term decline in reading and mathematics compared with earlier PISA cycles.

The government says its education programme will continue to focus on structured literacy and mathematics, increased daily time for reading, writing and mathematics, a knowledge-focused curriculum, improved teaching resources and earlier intervention for students who fall behind.

The latest figures therefore present a mixed but potentially important picture: New Zealand’s overall education system still faces substantial challenges, but the strongest recent improvements have come from students who previously faced the greatest educational disadvantage.