The next edition of the Programme for International Student Assessment will include questions about how the Covid-19 crisis has affected school students.

The flagship assessment of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Pisa assesses the skills of 15-year-olds in a number of countries in reading, maths and science.

In the next set of assessments, a new section will be included to understand how the pandemic has impacted on students’ education experience.

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Andreas Schleicher, director of education and skills at the OECD and Pisa coordinator, told Tes: “I think it’s very important we learn the right lessons from this crisis, and the student perspective has been missing.

“We know a lot about school systems, how systems have adapted, but we know very little about how this crisis has affected not only the learning of students, but also their social and emotional development.”

Pisa study will focus on the impact of Covid on students

This year’s Pisa assessment was postponed until 2022 because of the coronavirus crisis.

Students are now due to take the test in 2022, with results published in December 2023. The following Pisa survey will then be published in 2026, not 2025.

Teachers will be asked about their experience of teaching during the pandemic in the Teaching and Learning International Survey (Talis), another OECD assessment dedicated to teachers’ working conditions.

England did not fare well in the latest iteration of the Talis, which showed that it had “the most stressed teachers in the developing world”.

England has decided to not participate in the next edition of the Talis.