The Dominican Republic's results in the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show almost no change from 2022 in mathematics and reading, with only a slight, steady improvement in science, according to an opinion piece by Angel Hernandez published in Diario Libre.
Hernandez wrote that results across Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean also fell short of expectations, reflecting what he described as a worldwide crisis in math and reading learning. He called the Dominican figures a warning sign, though not evidence that the education system has failed outright, and said complacency would not be an acceptable response either.
Investment not translating into learning
The central finding, Hernandez argued, is that the country has not managed to convert its spending, teacher professionalization efforts and education reforms into better learning outcomes fast enough for what Dominican society needs. He noted that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which runs the PISA assessment, has acknowledged the gain in science as encouraging, but said the math and reading scores are nearly identical to 2022.
Hernandez pointed to a striking contrast with the results of the 2026 Teacher Performance Evaluation. In that review, the Ministry of Education reported that more than eight in ten teachers fell into the top ranges, rated excellent, very good or good.
He called this an apparent contradiction: a teaching profession that is mostly rated highly and has seen real improvement in its economic conditions, yet learning outcomes that remain low. Society's effort, he wrote, is not being reflected in good learning, which he called a striking irony.
Multiple factors, but no excuses
Learning depends on many factors, Hernandez wrote, including socioeconomic conditions, attendance, effective teaching time, school leadership, curriculum, resources, family involvement, school climate, discipline and students' own characteristics. But he argued those factors cannot keep being used as a permanent excuse for weak results, especially when a country has made a considerable effort to raise teacher pay, professionalize the workforce, evaluate performance and expand school resources. The unavoidable question, he said, is how much of that effort is actually reaching each child's learning, which he called the true mission of the education system.
PISA scores in detail
According to Hernandez, PISA 2022 sent a particularly strong signal: the country improved compared with 2018, but only 8% of students reached level 2 or above in mathematics, 25% in reading and 23% in science.
In 2025, he wrote, the share of students reaching level 2 was 25.9% in science, 9.5% in mathematics and 22.0% in reading, the last of these lower than in 2022. He said two areas showed slight improvement, but not enough.
A different question to ask
Hernandez said the country's leadership needs to shift the center of the debate. For years, he wrote, the questions asked have been how much is spent, how much teachers earn, how many schools are built, how many students receive devices, how many books are distributed, what percentage of teachers score well on evaluations, and how many foreign students are in classrooms.
All of those are legitimate questions, he said, but they do not solve the problem of low learning among children. He argued the country now needs to ask a more specific and demanding question: how much are students actually learning, and what needs to change so they learn significantly more.
Hernandez also said the Teacher Performance Evaluation should not be analyzed separately from the National Tests, diagnostic evaluations and PISA. He said it is necessary to study whether schools whose teachers show better practices are also the ones whose students show higher learning levels and, above all, greater progress, and called for identifying which schools perform above the national average and studying them in depth.
A two-year action plan
Looking ahead, Hernandez proposed two years of focused execution and measurement of learning results, built around two main steps.
- Carry out a national diagnostic in the coming months of fundamental learning, especially reading comprehension and math, starting in the earliest grades of primary school, so each school knows precisely what its students know, where their main gaps are and which need priority intervention. He said particular attention should go to 13 and 14 year olds, who will sit the next PISA evaluation, with a plan built around the competencies they currently have.
- Intervene in schools facing the greatest difficulties by giving them specialized pedagogical support, shifting teacher training away from general courses and toward in-classroom coaching, lesson observation, feedback and professional learning communities.
Hernandez said the priority should be teaching what students most need: reading comprehension, writing, mathematical reasoning, problem-solving and scientific and critical thinking, which would require streamlining the country's broad curriculum to focus on these fundamentals.
He said the country should not wait for the next PISA cycle to know whether its policies are working, and should instead set annual learning indicators and publish progress by region, grade level and student group. Continuing teacher training, he added, should be tied to evidence of learning rather than simply the accumulation of courses. He also called for strengthening the pedagogical use of textbooks, digital resources and artificial intelligence, saying technology should not replace the intellectual effort of students or teachers but can help create a better classroom experience.
What Hernandez says comes next
Hernandez wrote that the coincidence of strong teacher evaluations and persistently low learning results should be treated as an opportunity to refine an education system that is not yet converting the resources and professional capacity it has into effective learning for students.
The country has made progress in coverage, investment, infrastructure, resources and the professional standing of teachers, he said. It now needs to advance with equal determination on the outcome that ultimately justifies all of that effort: children learning more and learning better. He said the country does not need another reform, but better execution of existing policies, greater focus on learning, ongoing evaluation and the ability to quickly correct what is not working.
The main challenge, Hernandez concluded, should be ensuring children learn to read and write correctly from the right age. He said the results of the Con Base program are encouraging, but that the effort must continue, especially in the first cycle of secondary school, where the students who will sit the next PISA assessment are enrolled.
