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News Worldwide

New PISA 2025 study out now

The new PISA 2025 study was published on 8 September 2026. This time, it focused on science. In addition, foreign language skills were assessed for the first time this year. One innovative area featured in the new PISA study is ‘Learning in the Digital World’. This section examined students' ability to use digital tools to build knowledge and solve problems.

The PISA study has been conducted by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) since 2000. It is an international study of educational attainment that measures the academic performance of students in various countries.

• Main page of the PISA 2025 study (Volume I)

Aus aktuellem Anlass: Education under Right-Wing Governments, Autocracies and Populists

In Germany, the AfD – a party classified in part as a confirmed right-wing extremist organisation – has just won the election in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote. In light of this recent development, we would like to draw attention once again to our dossier on the subject of right-wing governments and education.

USA, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands .... – in many countries around the world, right-wing, authoritarian governments are coming to power or or parties with this mindset are increasingly gaining votes in elections.

What can we expect from the education policies of such governments and parties? What plans do they have for education in their countries? How does education change under right-wing and authoritarian governments?

Education Worldwide has compiled academic and non-academic texts and articles that provide a picture of the influence that right-wing and authoritarian tendencies could have, or in some cases already have, on education.

• Follow this link to the dossier "Education under Right-Wing Governments, Autocracies and Populists"

" This report presents an overview of how 23 European education systems are approaching AI in schools. It maps existing national policies and guidance, the status of generative AI, how AI literacy is being integrated into curricula, and the types of training and support offered to teachers and school leaders. It also highlights examples of AI use in schools, ongoing pilot [...]

"This report, based on a survey of 17 European countries, offers a comprehensive overview of how countries across Europe are currently implementing, managing and experiencing ... digital transformation within their schools." It "specifically focuses on two types of digital infrastructures of relevance for formal education: Education and Student Information Systems (ESIS or [...]

"The report (...) is organised into three parts. First, it synthesises how teacher learning is currently assessed in initial teacher education (ITE) and continuous professional development (CPD). Second, it considers how AI is reshaping the knowledge, skills and attitudes teachers need to develop, and what this implies for assessment. Third, it explores how AI is prompting [...]

"The White Paper “Teachers as Drivers of Change? Recommendations for Future-oriented Teacher Education” argues that teacher education must embed futures thinking at its core to prepare educators for an uncertain and rapidly changing world. It recommends interdisciplinary, pluralistic approaches and further research to strengthen teachers’ agency and support more just, [...]

"This mixed methods study investigates international researchers' awareness and use of open research practices and explores variations across regions, disciplines, methodologies and career stages. A total of 3017 researchers across 45 countries and 24 disciplines completed the Brief Open Research Survey, reporting their awareness and use of 11 common open research practices [...]

New Dossier: Education Research in Finland

To mark the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), which is taking place in Finland this year, Education Worldwide is devoting this web dossier to educational research in Finland. Like other Scandinavian countries, Finland has been regarded as a model nation for education, at least since its strong results in the PISA studies. The ‘latest trends’ in Finland’s education system are being closely monitored internationally, in the hope of finding examples of best practice for education in one’s own country. How do Finnish education researchers view their own and other education systems in comparison? Find out what Finnish education research is focusing on, at which institutions it is carried out, in which journals it is published and how it networks in the German Education Server’s new web dossier on education research in Finland.

• Follow this link to the webdossier "Education Research in Finland"

international
This is the website of the interactive educational game "Immune Patrol" from the WHO European Region. It is aimed specifically at 10- to 12-year-olds and was designed for use in schools. It uses an interactive approach to explain how the immune system works and how vaccines prevent the spread of diseases. In addition, students [...]

"Today, together with the European Research Council (ERC) and the national academies of the Netherlands, Slovakia, Finland and Cyprus, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina published key proposals to inform the development of a new EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, FP10, for the period 2028 to 2034. The joint paper 'Brussels Messages: Europe can [...]

"A guest article by the French teachers' union SNES-FSU (Syndicat national des enseignements de second degré affilié à la Fédération syndicale unitaire) on school buildings and heat waves. The union representative presents, among other things, a report on the topic based on an SNES-FSU survey of temperatures in French school buildings. The results can be viewed on a map [...]

Fun facts: Summer holiday season in Europe

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the longest summer holidays of them all?

Summer school holidays have now begun in many European countries. However, their duration varies significantly from country to country. Eurydice, the European education information network, features a chart on its website showing, among other things, the number of summer holiday days in European countries. It also allows you to see how many other breaks lasting longer than one or two weeks these countries have outside of the summer holidays. Logically, the more weeks of holiday a country has outside the summer period, the fewer summer holiday days it has.

So, which country has the most summer holiday days in 2026? It is Italy, with an incredible 97 days—equivalent to more than three months of summer holidays. The Netherlands, Denmark, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland have the fewest, with 42 days—closely followed by Germany with 44 summer holiday days. Italy thus has more than twice as many summer holiday days as the four countries with the shortest breaks. In return, of course, Italy has fewer long breaks during the rest of the year: there is only one other holiday period lasting a week or longer. All other breaks last only a few days.

Want to check the summer holiday dates for other countries?

• You can find them here on the Eurydice page under the tab "Holidays"

"High-level declarations pledging not to misuse metrics in research assessment are important, but they are far from enough. Senior academics, in particular, must use their influence to ensure institutions, funders and publishers translate pledges into concrete action, say six senior academics." Times Higher Education, 9 June 2026, Authors: Paul B. Rainey, Puri López-Garcia, [...]

"The 48th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) concluded with a breakthrough on the critical agenda of exceptions and limitations to copyright for education and research. The Committee agreed to launch text-based negotiations on education, preservation, and persons with disabilities not [...]

"To mark its 30th anniversary, the German 'Tertium Comparationis – Journal für Internationale und Interkulturell Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft' (Journal of International and Intercultural Comparative Education) presents a special issue dedicated to themes and contexts that have accompanied the journal since its inception. Contributors have seized this opportunity [...]

"This article analyzes influencer marketing as a central phenomenon of digital capitalism and its challenges for Austrian primary schools. It describes how tech companies, through data control and platform monopolies, enable subtle manipulations that influence children from an early age, illustrating this with the example of the survival series "7 vs. Wild." Based on empirical [...]

"‘Techno-fascism’ refers to the authoritarian dynamic in which digital infrastructures supplant democratic processes, replacing them with efficiency, automation, and affective mobilisation. Silicon Valley provides both the technology and the ideology for this. Using the example of higher education, Markus Deimann demonstrates how dangerous ideologies insinuate [...]

"The emergence of a network of “predatory” websites mimicking the official Webometrics Ranking of World Universities has led to the spread of fraudulent data across official university reports in 29 countries in Africa, Arab states, Asia and Europe, according to a recent study." Article by Wagdy Sawahel for University World News, 27 May 2026. You can find the original [...]

"A new study by Yale University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) found that almost one-fifth of professors who responded to a survey on academic freedom reported that they were 'significantly concern[ed] about being arrested in connection with their teaching'." Article on University World News by Nathan M Greenfield, 26 May 2026 [Summary: [...]

Deutschland
Beginning 24.11.2026
The 2026 Conference of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information is organized by the Barcelona Declaration together with the Leibniz Association and the Helmholtz Open Science Office. The conference will bring together the international community of signatories, supporters, and other stakeholders, creating a space to advance open research information across [...]

Die aktuelle Programmgeneration von Erasmus+ endet 2027. Die Vorbereitungen für das Nachfolgeprogramm haben schon begonnen. Was hat sich bewährt? Was sollte aus deutscher Sicht weiterentwickelt werden? Welche Vorschläge hat die EU-Kommission unterbreitet? Wie läuft der Prozess dazu ab – und was ist gerade der aktuelle Stand? Die Nationale Agentur [...]

"What does rigorous research actually say about how AI affects teaching and learning? To help answer that question, [the AI Hub for Education of the Stanford University] released a new report: The Evidence Base on AI in K-12: A 2026 Review. The report reviews the current research, focusing specifically on studies that convincingly estimate causal impact, meaning studies [...]

Educational Spaces & Learning Environments in an International Perspective

Learning spaces, learning environments, extended education – the terms are as diverse as the concepts and definitions behind them. It is striking that they consistently reflect current developments in other areas of education. In the 21st century, virtual and sustainable learning environments play a particularly important role, whereas until the 1980s, the focus was primarily on school buildings and architecture. Alongside the improvement of school buildings, classrooms, and so on, extracurricular education is also playing an increasingly significant role. This can take place both outdoors and in other spaces such as museums. In some contexts, the goal of learning spaces is also to create safe and stable environments in crisis zones in order to facilitate at least basic education. The new Education Worldwide dossier offers insights into all these aspects of learning spaces and learning environments. It provides general overview information, details on organisations, networks, and projects addressing this topic, as well as guides, handbooks, toolkits, and more.

• Follow this link to the dossier "Educational Spaces & Learning Environments in an International Perspective"
• Further thematically related dossier: "Space and Architecture in an Educational Context"
• Further thematically related dossier: "Homeschooling and Compulsory Education Worldwide"

"Since Donald Trump became president again, the situation at US universities has changed drastically: Students fear deportation, scientists are losing their jobs, and important research projects are being canceled." Feature by Egon Koch for Deutschlandfunk, March 31, 2026, 50:20 min. Available only in German. [Summary: Information provided by the editors of the site, [...]

The new UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2026 (GEM Report) has been published

The main focus of the new GEM Report 2026 is access and equity.

The report launches a planned three-part series entitled "Countdown to 2030." The year refers to the UN Agenda "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" (2030 Agenda), which also outlines the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The three-part GEM series aims to assess progress in the following areas: "Access and Equity" (GEM Report 2026), "Quality and Learning" (2027), and "The Relevance of Education" (2028/29). This assessment is intended to stimulate debate on the post-2030 agenda in the field of education.

• Main page for the GEM Report 2026
• The United Nations' 2030 Agenda

New on Education Worldwide: Social media ban – In which countries?

Since Australia became the first country in the world to implement a social media ban for children under 16 at the end of December 2025, calls for such a ban have grown louder in other countries, particularly within the European Union.

According to a survey in the IPSOS Education Monitoring 2025, a majority of respondents worldwide support a social media ban for those under 14. The specifics of how this ban would be implemented—which sites would be prohibited, the age limit, and the methods used—can vary from country to country.

In its new dossier, Education Worldwide offers a brief press review as well as several reports with survey results and statistics illustrating how the idea of ​​a social media ban is being discussed and implemented in different countries.

• Follow this link to the dossier "Social media ban – in which countries?"

Article only available in German - "For years, the PISA study has revealed the downward trend of the German school system. In search of solutions, Alexander Brand, editor of the school portal and a teacher himself, spent six months visiting schools in the PISA top-performing countries of Finland, Estonia, Japan, and Singapore. How do children learn there? What do these [...]

"The 2025 UNHCR Refugee Education Report draws on data from more than 70 countries worldwide to provide the most detailed picture yet of the state of refugee education and enrolment. The report highlights slight increases in access to education for refugees as well as moderate improvements towards achieving gender parity. At the same time, the recent cuts to humanitarian and [...]

"Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping the educational landscape, beyond teaching and learning. Unlike earlier waves of education technology, much of GenAI is freely accessible and largely used beyond institutional control due to its intuitiveness and versatility. The OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026 analyses emerging research that suggests GenAI can support learning when [...]

"The United Kingdom has reached agreement with the European Union to rejoin the Erasmus+ programme from 2027, (...). The agreement to join Erasmus+ in 2027 fulfils a key commitment made at the UK-EU Summit in May and will open up study and training abroad opportunities for young people across the country, as well as staff." Brendan O’Malley for University World News, [...]

Happy New Year 2026 from Education Worldwide

Education Worldwide wishes you a happy and healthy New Year 2026! Have you ever wondered how New Year's Eve is celebrated in other countries? We've linked to some interesting websites that explore this question – with examples from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, Philippines, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, and the USA.

• New Year’s Eve traditions worldwide: 8 quirky traditions for a successful start to the New Year
  (Berlin School of Business and Innovation, BSBI, 10.12.2024)
• 10 New Year’s Eve Traditions Around the World
  (Oxford Summer Courses 03.02.2025)
• New Year's traditions: How do people celebrate the new year around the world?
  (BBC 31.12.2023)