About PISA
PISA — the Programme for International Student Assessment — is the world's largest comparative study of the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students.
What is PISA?
PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an international study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Since 2000 it has been held every three years and has become the leading global benchmark for the quality of school education.
PISA does not test how well students have memorised the school curriculum. Instead, it evaluates whether 15-year-olds can apply their knowledge and skills to solve problems they may face in real life.
Goals of the study
Assess applied skills
Enable comparison
Inform policy
Organiser — the OECD
PISA is developed and coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international body that brings together countries to share experience and develop standards in economic and social policy, including education.
Core assessment domains
Reading Literacy
Mathematical Literacy
Scientific Literacy
In addition to the three core domains, PISA collects information on students' well-being, motivation and learning environment.
History of Tajikistan's participation
The Republic of Tajikistan is expanding its engagement with international assessments as part of efforts to modernise the national education system and align it with global standards. PISA participation provides Tajikistan with reliable, comparable data on the quality of education.
Assessment activities in Tajikistan are carried out by the National Testing Centre under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan (NTC), established by Presidential Decree No. 138 of 10 February 2014. The National PISA Centre operates within the NTC and became fully operational in 2023 to prepare the country for its first-ever participation in the study, in the PISA 2025 cycle — the ninth international PISA assessment since 2000.
PISA in Tajikistan is implemented with the financial support of the European Union under the Quality Education Support Programme II (QESP II). International technical assistance is provided by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) together with the OECD, with data processing by Westat and linguistic quality assurance by cApStAn.
Field Trial
Assessment instruments piloted in 71 schools in Dushanbe, with a 93.7% student participation rate.
Main Survey
Tajikistan's first PISA Main Survey: 160 schools in Dushanbe and 5,778 students took part (preliminary operational figures).
Coding and analysis
Trained national coders and analysts process the data; the National PISA 2025 Report is being prepared for publication.
PISA 2029
Tajikistan confirmed its intention to continue participating in the next PISA cycle, in 2029.
The national team
PISA in Tajikistan is coordinated by a national team at the National PISA Centre, working with subject-area coordinators and a network of trained school coordinators, test administrators and coders across participating schools.