PISA’s real lesson is accountability, not excuses

 

MALAYSIA’S latest PISA results should neither become a national embarrassment nor be explained away by saying that education is about more than numbers.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Fadhlina Sidek is right on one important point: a nation’s educational health cannot be reduced to a league table.

Behind every PISA score is a young Malaysian with aspirations, curiosity, resilience and potential. Judging our children solely by rankings would indeed miss much of the story.

But there is an equally important truth. The numbers are not the whole story, but they tell a story we cannot afford to ignore.

The OECD’s findings provide Malaysia with an encouraging counterweight to the gloom surrounding the results.

79% of Malaysian students demonstrated perseverance in learning, compared with 60% across participating OECD countries.

Malaysian students also scored strongly in curiosity, resilience and self-directed learning, while teachers showed a clear commitment to helping students understand what they were taught.

These are not minor achievements. They are national assets.

The uncomfortable question is not whether Malaysian students have the ability to learn. It is why those strengths are not being converted into stronger mastery of mathematics, reading, science, computational problem-solving and critical thinking.

That is where PISA becomes valuable.

Malaysia’s mathematics score fell from 409 in 2022 to 397 in 2025. Computational problem-solving stood at 484 points, 16 points below the OECD average. Students continue to rely too heavily on memorising mathematical formulas rather than applying concepts creatively and critically.

Only 34% reported discussing school-related problems with their parents at least once a week, while cyberbullying remains another worrying concern.

These findings should not become ammunition against teachers, parents or students. They should become a diagnostic tool for reform.

Perhaps the most constructive reading of PISA is this: Malaysia possesses considerable human potential but is not yet converting that potential into educational performance.

That distinction matters.

A student who perseveres but struggles with foundational mathematics needs better teaching, not blame.

A curious student who lacks opportunities for critical thinking needs classrooms that encourage questioning, investigation and real-world problem-solving rather than more memorisation.

A committed teacher needs professional autonomy, quality training and sufficient time to teach instead of an ever-expanding administrative workload.

Parents, too, cannot remain spectators.

Education does not begin and end at the school gate. If only one-third of students regularly discuss school-related challenges at home, Malaysia needs a stronger culture of partnership between families and schools.

There is also a broader question: What kind of Malaysian is our education system trying to produce?

If success is defined merely by reproducing correct answers in examinations, we will remain trapped in an industrial-era model of education.

But if Malaysia hopes to become a high-income, innovative and united nation, then curiosity, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, digital literacy and moral responsibility must become as important as examination performance.

This is where the minister’s broader perspective can become more than a defence against disappointing statistics. It can become the foundation of a new national education compact.

Let us celebrate perseverance while asking why it is not producing stronger mastery.

Let us support teachers by giving them the conditions to become mentors, innovators and facilitators rather than simply syllabus deliverers.

Let us strengthen home-school partnerships instead of treating parental involvement as optional.

And let us recognise that while PISA cannot measure everything, what it does measure can help us identify where our education system is falling short.

Most importantly, Malaysia should stop treating education reform as a contest between government defenders and government critics.

The real contest is between potential and performance.

Our students have demonstrated resilience. Our teachers have demonstrated commitment. Those strengths give Malaysia something more valuable than consolation. They give us reason to believe improvement is possible.

The appropriate response to disappointing numbers is neither panic nor denial. It is the courage to use the evidence honestly, listen to our children, empower our teachers, engage our parents and reform the way we teach.

Then PISA will cease to be merely a ranking exercise. It will become what every good assessment should be: a mirror that helps a nation see itself clearly enough to improve.

Malaysia should not fear the mirror. We should use it to build a better education system, better citizens and, ultimately, a better Malaysia. 

KT Maran is a Focus Malaysia reader.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

- Focus Malaysia.