PISA 2029 to assess students’ ethics, digital judgement

Every three years, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) offers countries a snapshot of how well their 15-year-olds are prepared for life beyond school.

Coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), PISA is not primarily interested in rote knowledge. It asks whether students can take what they have learned and apply it to real problems in unfamiliar contexts, across reading, mathematics, science and an expanding range of broader competences.

For a small country like Malta, this matters. PISA provides a window into how other education systems approach the same challenges, revealing both their strengths and gaps, and prompts useful reflection on whether what happens in classrooms is genuinely preparing young people for the world they actually inhabit.

In 2029, that world will be examined more directly than ever before. PISA will introduce a new “innovative domain” called ‘Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy’ (MAIL), reflecting a recognition that today’s young people are growing up in systems they often cannot see: algorithms that shape what they read, platforms designed to hold their attention, and AI tools that generate content with increasing fluency. Learning to navigate all of this safely, critically and ethically is becoming one of the defining competencies of contemporary life.

The timing is worth noting. Students currently in Year 8 will be in Year 11 when PISA 2029 takes place. What they are learning now is precisely what will be assessed then

The draft PISA 2029 framework sets out what this means in practice. Students will be assessed on their ability to evaluate the credibility of online information, identify bias and manipulation, understand how algorithmic systems influence what they encounter, make thoughtful ethical choices in digital spaces, and use AI tools responsibly. The underlying question is not simply “can students use technology?” but “can they think clearly about it?”

This is an area where Malta’s ethics curriculum has something meaningful to offer. Ethics in Maltese schools already addresses many of these themes: digital responsibility, AI ethics, the social consequences of technology, the question of who benefits from digital systems and who doesn’t. Students are asked not simply to learn about these things but to reason through them, drawing on real situations they recognise from their own lives online.

Which one is AI generated? It turns out both are! Photos: https://x.com/immasiddx/status/1992979078220263720?s=20

There is genuine alignment between this approach and what PISA 2029 is looking for. One of the MAIL framework’s core competencies is the capacity to “reflect and act ethically and responsibly” across all digital engagements – not as a standalone module but as a thread running through everything else. That is also how ethics tends to function in Maltese classrooms: not as a set of rules to memorise but as a practice of applied reasoning.

This alignment is not merely theoretical. Through the ‘wE-Thrive’ research project, funded by the Malta Digital Innovation Authority and currently being carried out in Maltese schools, the present authors are exploring how students understand concepts like digital trust, ethical decision-making and responsible engagement with AI.

Early findings suggest an association between explicitly teaching these themes through ethics and students’ capacity to question what they read online, think critically about algorithmic systems and consider the broader consequences of their digital behaviour. It is early work but it provides timely, locally grounded evidence that the competences Malta’s ethics syllabi are developing are also those that PISA 2029 will assess.

The timing is worth noting. Students currently in Year 8 will be in Year 11 when PISA 2029 takes place. What they are learning now is precisely what will be assessed then – but more than that, it is what they will need as people making their way through a world increasingly shaped by technologies they had no hand in designing.

PISA 2029 reflects a broader shift in how we think about what education is for. It is no longer enough to ask whether students can pass exams; the question is whether they can think, judge and act well in conditions of genuine uncertainty and complexity. Malta’s ethics curriculum is already oriented towards that challenge. That is worth acknowledging and worth building on.

Lucianne Zammit is a resident academic at the University of Malta’s Faculty of Education. She coordinates the Master’s in Teaching and Learning (Ethics) and the PGCE in the Teaching of Ethics in Schools. 

Christian Colombo is a resident academic at the university’s Faculty of ICT. He co-founded the thinktank ‘Technologically Mediated: Thinking the Human Today’ and contributes to national digital strategies, including Malta’s forthcoming AI strategy.