OECD PISA 2025: Italy's Reading Scores Rise Amid Digital Transformation, But Teachers' Role Undervalued

The OECD released the 2025 PISA results, the largest global survey of 15-year-old students' competencies, revealing a global decline in reading, mathematics, and science. Italy's performance was comparatively stable, with reading scores reaching 474 points—the highest ever recorded for the country—while math (468) returned to 2003–2006 levels and science (483) remained below its 2012 peak. The author argues that the improvement in reading is not due to recent educational reforms but to the unprecedented digital acceleration in Italy since 2020, which has immersed adolescents in a constant stream of text, chat, and notifications, shaping their neurocognitive abilities. The piece criticizes politicians for framing the results as a triumph of policy, emphasizing that schools are not performance systems but places of human formation. It underscores the vital role of teachers as emotionally attuned educators, not mere trainers, and calls for adequate salaries in a society that confuses speed with intelligence. The article concludes that no reform can succeed without valuing the teacher-student relationship, warning against creating 'educated robots'.