The average correct answer rates in the Japanese language and math sections of a national achievement test for students in Japan in fiscal 2025 fell from the previous year, the education ministry said Monday.

The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section dropped to 67.0% from 67.8% among elementary school sixth-graders.

Among third-year junior high school students, the rate sagged to 54.6% from 58.4%, the lowest level since the current question format was introduced in fiscal 2019. They struggled with writing tasks in particular.

For the math section, the rate slid to 58.2% from 63.6% among elementary school sixth-graders and to 48.8% from 53.0% among third-year junior high schoolers.

In science, with the test conducted for the first time in three years, the correct answer rate fell to 57.3% from 63.4% in fiscal 2022 among elementary school sixth-graders.

For the science test for junior high school third-graders, a computer-based testing system was introduced, making it difficult to calculate an easily comparable correct answer rate.

"As the difficulty level is different every year, it's not appropriate to observe a change in academic skills by simply comparing the latest results to the past correct answer rates," a ministry official said.

A comparison over time will become easier once the computer-based testing system is introduced for all subjects in fiscal 2027, according to the ministry.

The latest achievement test was conducted in April, covering some 1.9 million students from about 28,000 schools nationwide.