OECD PISA Data: One-Third of Young Europeans Rank as 'Functionally Illiterate,' Researcher Says

Roughly one in three young Europeans cannot read a basic paragraph or solve simple math problems well enough to function normally in daily life, according to Maciej Jakubowski, director of the Educational Research Institute, who cited the latest OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results to Euronews.

Jakubowski said the data shows "an increasing number of students" falling below Level 2 proficiency in reading and math, the threshold PISA uses to define basic competency. Below that line, students struggle to extract meaning from a simple text or apply basic arithmetic to everyday problems. Jakubowski's blunt term for that group: "functionally illiterate."

He didn't describe this as a one-country problem. Jakubowski said the decline is visible "in most European countries," not isolated to any single national school system or government.

The Social Media Question, Left Open

The obvious question is why. Smartphones and social media are the easy villain, and Jakubowski doesn't dismiss that theory. But he's careful not to overstate what the data actually proves.

"We cannot say causally that there is a relationship, but that's the first guess," Jakubowski told Euronews.

This is an important distinction. PISA measures outcomes, not causes. It can show that scores are falling. It cannot, by itself, prove that TikTok or Instagram is the reason. Jakubowski is naming the leading suspect while admitting nobody has run the experiment that would confirm it.

A reasonable parent or policymaker looking at collapsing attention spans and rising phone use in classrooms has every right to suspect a link. Several European governments, including France and parts of the Netherlands, have already restricted phones in schools on exactly that suspicion. But suspicion is not proof, and Jakubowski's own caution should temper anyone rushing to declare the case closed based on this data alone.

What PISA Actually Measures

PISA is run every three years by the OECD and tests 15-year-olds across dozens of countries in reading, math, and science. It's the closest thing the developed world has to an apples-to-apples comparison of what teenagers actually know, rather than what their grades or diplomas claim they know.

A student scoring below Level 2 isn't just behind on vocabulary. That student typically cannot locate the main idea in a moderately complex text, distinguish fact from opinion in straightforward writing, or complete basic multi-step math problems, according to how the OECD defines the proficiency scale. Jakubowski's "functionally illiterate" label reflects that these are students who will struggle with ordinary adult tasks like reading a lease, understanding a pay stub, or following written instructions at a job.

An Uncomfortable Number, Not a New Debate

A third of an entire generation landing below that bar is not a rounding error. It's a systemic failure showing up across borders, in different school systems, under different governments and curricula.

A diploma doesn't mean much if a third of the kids getting one can't reliably read the document handing it to them. Grade inflation, watered-down curricula, and a decade of pandemic-era remote schooling have all been floated elsewhere as contributing culprits, but Jakubowski's comments to Euronews stick specifically to the trend line and the leading theory, not a full accounting of every cause.

What happens next depends on what European education ministries do with this. Jakubowski's institute and the OECD will keep tracking whether phone restrictions already in place in several countries move the needle in future PISA cycles. The correlation with screens is the obvious first guess, not an established fact.