Are 'smart' phones making children 'weaker'? Students' performance worsens after Covid – report reveals why
PISA 2025 shows a continued decline in student performance across mathematics, reading and science, with OECD-average scores reaching their lowest levels so far. The report also examines students' use of digital devices and AI chatbots for learning, while highlighting how classroom distraction from devices is associated with lower science scores.
New Delhi: Are our smartphones and other digital devices slowly tanking young generation's test scores? The PISA findings show a worrying trend. As 15-year-olds spend more time on phones, tablets and other digital devices, their average scores in maths, reading and science have fallen to their lowest levels recorded so far. Screen time is part of the picture, but the way students use these devices also appears to make a difference.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessed about 760,000 15-year-old students across 91 countries and economies in 2025. It measures how well students can apply what they have learnt in mathematics, reading and science to real-life situations. The results show that student performance has continued to decline in recent PISA cycles. Reading witnessed the sharpest fall.
How much have the scores fallen?
The long-term OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) trend gives a clear picture. The average mathematics score was 501 points in 2006. It fell to 469 in 2025. Reading went from 495 points in 2006 to 466 in 2025. Science, which stood at 503 in 2006, was at 486 in 2025.
The decline became more pronounced in the later PISA cycles. The OECD data show that the average mathematics score across OECD countries fell from 485 points in 2015 to 463 in 2025. Reading dropped from 489 to 461 over the same period. Science declined from 489 to 482.
The OECD's trend dashboard says the 2025 results were the lowest OECD-average performance seen so far in science, reading and mathematics. It also says mathematics witnessed a steep fall after 2018, while reading had been declining after reaching a high around 2012.
The COVID-19 pandemic is part of the period covered by the latest results, but the OECD does not attribute the entire decline to the pandemic. The report highlights several factors affecting learning outcomes over time.
What does screen time have to do with it?
Digital device use is one of the areas examined in detail in PISA 2025. The OECD found that the relationship between device use and academic performance depends on how the devices are used.
Students who used digital devices moderately for learning at school generally recorded better science performance than those who reported no use or very heavy use. More than one hour of leisure use at school was associated with lower science performance.
The data also show how common digital devices have become in students' daily lives. Across OECD countries, students spent an average of 1.7 hours a day using digital devices for learning at school and another 1.1 hours for leisure during the school day. Outside school, students spent about 3.4 hours a day on digital devices for leisure activities on average.
The pattern is also visible in the science-performance data cited in the original report. Students with limited or moderate device use recorded stronger scores than students spending very long periods on devices. The OECD's analysis describes heavy use as being associated with weaker outcomes, after taking students' socio-economic background into account.
That does not mean every child who spends more time on a phone or computer will perform poorly. The OECD warns against treating device use as a simple cause of lower marks. The purpose of the activity is important. A device used for a school assignment is different from one used for social media, gaming or other leisure activities.
Digital distraction is also a problem
The assessment found that digital devices can interfere with classroom learning when their use is not managed properly. On average, 28% of students across OECD countries said their classmates were distracted by digital devices during most or every science lesson. Revised sentence
Students who experienced such digital distraction in science classes scored 11 points lower in science on average after accounting for students' and schools' socio-economic background.
Schools have responded in different ways. The OECD found that schools with mobile-phone bans or subject-specific rules for digital devices generally had lower levels of classroom distraction and less leisure use of devices at school. The report identifies several factors that affect learning outcomes over time.
The PISA report also looks at the role of artificial intelligence. AI chatbots are now commonly used by students, with 46% of those surveyed across OECD countries saying they use them weekly or more to help them learn. The findings suggest that the relationship between AI use and performance is complex and depends on how the technology is used.
The 2025 assessment therefore captures a school-age population whose learning habits have changed in the digital era. The results track falling scores in the core subjects along with data on device use, classroom distraction and the rising use of AI for schoolwork.