Despite the initial withdrawl by Mexican education authorities, Mexico ultimately participated, albeit reluctantly, due to public pressure at the time. In October 2025, referring to the PISA test, Secretary of Education Mario Delgado stated that “comparing ourselves internationally using standardized tests serves no purpose.”
However, there is a global consensus that PISA represents the largest and most significant international effort in educational assessment. The importance of suitable, standardized educational assessments lies in their ability to help policy makers introduce public policies in education. Without appropriate assessments, there is no way to improve; it is like drifting aimlessly, without a compass to show the way.
Renowned education researcher Eduardo Andere reminds us that “participation in PISA is crucial for Mexico, as it is the only tool we have to evaluate the country’s education and educational policy—given that both presidents López Obrador and Sheinbaum have cancelled other national and international comparative and accountability assessments.”
Mexico did have an autonomous body for educational evaluation: the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education (INEE). However, on May 9, 2019, the constitutional (counter-)reform regarding education eliminated the INEE with a stroke by repealing the Law on the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education.
In light of Mexican education authorities’ rejection of assessments—which they deem discriminatory—university professor Jorge Javier Romero recently wrote: “In a world that retains the unpleasant habit of demanding knowledge, the New Mexican School [the name that was pompously given to the educational reform that, among other things, cancelled the use of professional textbooks provided by the publishing industry] ends up being a trap that reproduces inequality.”
The good news regarding the release of the PISA 2025 results is that it will once again place education at the center of public debate. In a brilliant document released recently, prominent researchers Sylvia Schmelkes and Carlos Mancera explain that “a democratic society must constantly deliberate on the education it desires for its children and youth. However, there are moments when that conversation takes on special significance. The publication of the PISA 2025 results will be, in all likelihood, one such moment.”
Schmelkes and Mancera propose an objective model, free from political bias, to prepare us to receive and interpret PISA results, based on the premise that “there is no comprehensive education without fundamental skills.”
In this regard, one of the most important skills is undoubtedly reading comprehension, as it serves as the gateway to all other areas of learning, including science and mathematics. Very often, when young people fail math tests, it is not because they lack knowledge of algebra, but rather because they did not understand the problem.
The situation is alarming. According to World Bank data, 48% of children in the final years of primary education in Mexico do not comprehend what they read. Similarly, the 2022 PISA test indicates that 47% of 15-year-old Mexican students do not reach the minimum level of reading proficiency.
That is why the campaign by Mexicanos Primero for reading comprehension in Mexico is so welcome—like a breath of fresh air. Its motto is: “Without reading comprehension, there is no learning.” The campaign was launched on September 1st.
In her fascinating book ‘Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World’, Dr. Maryanne Wolf explains that:
“Human beings were not born to read. The acquisition of literacy is one of the most important epigenetic achievements of Homo Sapiens.” And she goes on to say that:
“In just six millennia, reading became the transformative catalyst for intellectual development in both individuals and literate cultures. The quality of our reading not only reflects the quality of our thinking but also serves as our most well-known path for developing new avenues in the cerebral evolution of our species.”
Dr. Esmeralda Matute—a distinguished researcher at the University of Guadalajara’s Institute of Neurosciences and eminent author for Hogrefe Mexico (formerly Manual Moderno)—tells us that:
“At brain level, serial reading (deciphering words) bears almost no resemblance to natural reading (reading comprehension). They are two completely different tasks. Serial word reading is one thing, while reading texts properly is something else entirely. To read correctly—to comprehend—we need, among other things, memory, attention, reasoning, and the brain’s executive functions.”
Literacy fosters the development of various cognitive and metalinguistic abilities. It also alters the brain organization associated with language and cognition. Reading activates many cognitive functions.
Dr. Matute’s final hypothesis is that: “Reading influences the construction of thought.”
Schmelkes and Mancera tell us that “In a pluralistic society, it is unlikely that there will be complete agreement on all the goals of education or on every educational policy decision. However, it does seem possible to build consensus around a more fundamental conviction: that all children and young people have the right to acquire the fundamental skills that will enable them to continue learning throughout their lives and expand their opportunities for development.”
And for children to develop fundamental learning skills, reading comprehension is essential. There is no other way.
Eduardo Andere states that “PISA is not a neoliberal, conservative, left-wing, or right-wing test, nor does it belong to the Global North or the Global South.” I agree. Let us see what results this latest assessment yields and—most importantly—let us act accordingly. If we receive poor results, it will serve no purpose to dismiss the test “as an exercise by Europeans for Europeans.”
We may not like the image in the mirror, but the response should not be—in a tantrum—to smash the mirror; rather, it should be to engage in an objective and humble exercise of introspection in order to correct the course.