The wealthiest quarter of Brazilian students scored 96 points more in science than the poorest quarter in the 2025 Pisa, the Programme for International Student Assessment run by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The results were released on Tuesday (September 8) and come from the edition in which science received the most detailed analysis.

According to Folha de S.Paulo, the average among the most disadvantaged students was 380 points, against roughly 476 for the most advantaged, a level close to the OECD average in the subject, 482. Brazil's national average in science was 409. The 96-point gap exceeds the OECD average of 85 points, though it sits below the widest case in the group: in Germany the difference reaches 125 points, the largest among OECD countries with available data, while in Canada it is 59.

To gauge the size of the gap, Folha notes that a 20-point variation in Pisa equals roughly one year of learning. On that yardstick, the 96 points separating the Brazilian extremes amount to nearly five years of schooling between two groups of students of the same age, 15.

How the groups are defined

Pisa does not rank students by family income. The OECD uses an index called ESCS, which combines parents' education and occupation with resources available at home, such as books, a place to study and internet access. When the report refers to the richest and poorest 25%, it compares quarters of that composite scale, not salary brackets.

Roughly 760,000 students enrolled in schools across 91 countries and economies sat the exam. In Brazil, 30,140 students took part; 72.4% of them attended state-run schools and 84.7% were in the first or second year of high school, according to Poder360. These are final figures published in the 2025 cycle report, not preliminary estimates.

How to read the number

Brazil's 409 points in science are the highest in the series presented by Inep, the federal institute behind the country's education assessments, though Folha points out the score is close to the 401 recorded in 2015, with no significant change over the decade. Three checks help interpret the gap between groups:

• when comparing headlines, check which OECD average is being used: 482 points for all 38 member countries, or 486, the comparable average used for historical trends, based on 23 countries since 2000;
• "rich" and "poor" are quarters of the ESCS index, and national averages hide differences between states and school systems;
• the full reports are publicly available from the OECD and from the Brazilian data presented by Inep.