The UK has slipped further down world education rankings as teenagers fall behind their peers in reading, maths and science.
Countries including Poland and Norway have overtaken the UK in the last three years as British education “stagnated”.
Britain has fallen from 17th in 2006 to 25th for reading skills among 15-year-olds, according to a major study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In maths, the UK has dropped from 24th to 28th place, it shows.
Around half a million 15-year-olds from more than 70 countries took part in the OECD’s 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, with the results for 65 published.
More nations took part than in previous years.
The study assessed how students could use their knowledge and skills in real life, rather than just repeating facts and figures.
The findings showed that the UK’s score for reading was 494, about the same as the OECD average, 493.
The top performer for reading was Shanghai-China with a score of 556. For maths skills, the UK’s score was 492, again similar to the OECD average of 496. Shanghai-China was again top-ranked with a score of 600.
In science the UK received a score of 514, placing it 16th. The OECD average was 501, and Shanghai-China was again top with 575.
The UK’s results remained similar to those in the 2006 PISA study, when the UK was ranked 17th for reading skills, 24th for maths and 14th for science.
At the same time, other nations have improved, leading to the UK dropping down the rankings.
The study shows that Iceland and Norway were among those overtaking the UK in terms of reading skills, after they were ranked lower in 2006, while the Slovak Republic and Norway are now marginally above Britain in maths.
Andreas Schleicher, head of the PISA programme, said: “I think the picture is stagnant at best, whereas many other countries have seen quite significant improvement. That’s basically how I interpret these data.”
Education Secretary Michael Gove said that the first PISA study led to “PISA shock” in some countries which found that their education systems were not as good as they believed they were.
“After 13 years of increased investment in education, when it was a political priority for the last government, we still fall behind other nations,” he said.
“So we have got to ensure that we implement those lessons, and not every lesson here is necessarily comfortable for some people who have invested heavily in old ways of doing things.
“But unless we learn the importance of greater autonomy, sharper accountability, raising the prestige of the teaching profession, dealing with discipline in the bottom 20-25 per cent of schools – unless we do those things, then in three years’ time there will be another, even more profound, PISA shock for this country’s politicians.”
The study showed that almost a fifth (18.5 per cent) of the UK’s 15-year-olds were operating below the reading level the OECD considers the minimum requirement for entry to further study or entry to the job market.
Although this is similar to the OECD average, in some countries just eight per cent or 10 per cent were operating below this level.
In maths skills, around 20 per cent of UK students were operating below this level, while in science the figure was 15 per cent.
The PISA study also showed that while scores for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were around the OECD average, Wales was below. The score for reading was 476, for maths 472 and science 496.
Countries where schools had autonomy and strong account-ability systems were likely to be successful.
Schools with good discipline and better relationships between students and teachers achieved better results.
Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham said: “English schools are better today than they were in the 1980s and 90s, but of course we all want them to be among the best in the world.”