PISA reading scores decline spark educational policy debates

Recent PISA rankings have highlighted a significant decline in reading literacy among students, particularly in France, which currently holds the 28th position in the OECD. French Education Minister Édouard Geffray described the trend as the “cognitive destruction” of a generation, while Spanish Education Minister Milagros Tolón emphasized that reading serves as the foundation for all learning.

In response to these declining skills and the influence of technology, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a ban on student-facing generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public schools for students from pre-school through eighth grade. The policy includes age-appropriate screen time restrictions and critical thinking modules for high schoolers.

While some view these technological restrictions as necessary to protect children's attention, others argue that such measures address symptoms rather than the underlying cause: a broader societal shift from a literary to a post-literary environment driven by rapid technological transformation.