The 2022 PISA results were released on 5 December 2023, after originally being planned for 2021, but postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As noted in the committee’s interim report, student behaviour and engagement in Australian school classrooms is of growing concern to many teachers, school leaders and parents. Regrettably, the OECD’s PISA 2022 survey has continued to show a decline in the disciplinary climate in Australian classrooms.

Furthermore, the survey results continue to show a steady decline in student performance across the domains examined. Just over half of Australian students achieved the National Proficient Standard, with a significant number of students failing to demonstrate they have more than basic skills in the areas of mathematics, science and reading. These results confirm the recent National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) findings, which show that one in three Australian students failed to reach expectations in basic numeracy, reading and writing skills.

The committee believes that Australia should examine how high performing countries are achieving better results than Australia, including the extent to which the experience of these countries can inform Australian schools, and how funding for students in Australia and other countries correlates with student performance and academic standards.