PISA RESULTS TO TEST ZAMBIA’S EDUCATION INVESTMENTS

OECD and ECZ say assessment will show whether education reforms and investment are improving learning outcomes

By Francis Maingaila ♥️ 

Lusaka, Zambia24  -- 07-09-2026 -- ZAMBIA is tomorrow expected to get a clearer picture of how its 15-year-old learners are performing when the OECD releases the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.

The results will be released on September 8, 2026, at 09:30 Paris time.

But for the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ), the results are not simply about finding out where Zambia stands on an international ranking.

Dr Shadreck Nkoya, ECZ Director of Research, Planning and Information, said Zambia joined PISA to learn from other education systems and identify policies that could improve learning outcomes.

He said Zambia was not taking part simply to compete with countries such as China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Finland and Singapore.

“We want to understand what they are doing differently and see what we can learn and adapt to our own situation,” Dr Nkoya said.

PISA assesses 15-year-olds on their ability to use what they have learnt to solve real-life problems rather than simply recall information. The 2025 assessment focused on science, with reading and mathematics also assessed.

Zambia first participated in PISA for Development (PISA-D) in 2018, when learners were assessed in reading and mathematics. The 2025 exercise is the country’s participation in the main PISA study.

Dr Nkoya said the earlier assessment also brought to light challenges in age and grade progression.

He said some 15-year-olds were still in Grade Seven, while others of the same age were found in Grades Six, Seven and 10.

“That tells you something about progression in the education system,” he said.

Dr Nkoya said learners are expected to progress through school at particular developmental stages and that being significantly older than classmates could affect learning.

He said Zambia could also learn from countries that achieve strong results without spending as much as wealthier nations.

He cited Vietnam, saying the country spends considerably less on education than some richer countries but has achieved strong learning outcomes.

“What are they doing differently, and what can we realistically take from that experience and apply in Zambia?” he asked.

Dr Nkoya said PISA also fits with Zambia’s shift from a content-based curriculum to a competence-based curriculum.

He said the old curriculum placed greater emphasis on acquiring and recalling information, while the competence-based curriculum expects learners to apply what they know to real-life situations.

“PISA is not asking you simply to remember something you were taught. It wants to know whether you can use that knowledge, reason through a problem and come up with an answer,” he said.

He said the 2025 results could therefore help show whether the competence-based approach is translating into improved learning.

Dr Nkoya stressed that ECZ’s role is to assess learners and provide evidence rather than determine whether the new curriculum has been properly implemented.

“Our role is to assess the learners and provide the evidence. The evidence can then help the education sector determine what is working and where there are problems,” he said.

He said education stakeholders, including the Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC), could use the findings to assess whether their programmes and interventions were making a difference.

PISA is designed to assess skills that cut across different curricula, including reading comprehension, reasoning, problem-solving and the application of knowledge.

Dr Nkoya said, for example, a question asking learners to choose the most appropriate title for a passage tests whether they understand the main idea rather than whether they can recall something from the syllabus.

He said this was important as Zambia moves away from an education system heavily reliant on memorisation.

Another key feature of PISA is its sampling process.

Dr Nkoya said Zambia does not test every 15-year-old because that would be costly and difficult to manage. Instead, schools with eligible learners are selected statistically, followed by random selection of eligible learners.

“The idea is to get a representative picture of the country. We are not picking the fast learners or the slow learners,” he said.

He compared the process to a blood sample used to determine what is happening in the body.

“You don't need to take all the blood in the body to know what is happening. You take a sample that can tell you what is happening in the whole system,” he said.

The approach is intended to reduce bias and produce findings that reflect the wider population of 15-year-olds.

Guillaume Bouquet, OECD Paris Data Manager for PISA, said developing an assessment that can fairly measure 15-year-olds from different education systems is a complex process.

He said OECD experts and specialists from participating countries spend years developing and testing questions before they are used.

Some PISA questions are later made public, while others remain confidential so they can be used in future assessments to measure changes in performance over time.

Dr Nkoya said ECZ had spent months working with OECD experts on data analysis and technical issues to ensure that the national findings are consistent with the international assessment.

He said the exercise had also strengthened Zambia’s capacity to conduct large-scale educational assessments.

The OECD coordinated PISA 2025 across 91 education systems.

Dr Nkoya likened the assessment to the World Cup, saying countries should look beyond the final table and study what stronger performers are doing right.

“If you look at the World Cup, you don't just want to know who came first. You also want to know what that team is doing right, how they prepare and what you can learn from them,” he said.

Bouquet said the same approach should apply to PISA, with countries using the findings to understand their education systems rather than treating the exercise as a simple league table.

For Zambia, the results will also provide an opportunity to examine whether years of investment in classrooms, teachers, learning materials and curriculum reforms are producing the expected gains in learning.

Dr Nkoya said policymakers would need to look closely at the evidence and ask whether the country was getting the results it expected from its investment in education.

He said the findings should not be used to condemn teachers or learners, but to identify where the education system needs more support.

Zambia’s continued participation in future PISA cycles will also allow the country to track whether reforms are making a difference over time.

For Dr Nkoya, one of the lasting benefits of taking part in PISA is the expertise ECZ has gained in large-scale assessment, data management and analysis.

The immediate focus, however, will be on what the results reveal about Zambia’s learners — where they are doing well, where they are struggling and what needs to change.

As Dr Nkoya put it: “When children learn, nations prosper.”