Why in news?
Indian government has recently decided to take part in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
What is PISA?
- The PISA is a competency-based test to assess the quality of education systems across the world.
- It assesses the learning levels of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, science, collaborative problem solving and money literacy.
- The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducts PISA every three years.
What is the recent decision?
- India boycotted PISA, blaming "out of context" questions for India's dismal performance in PISA-2009 where it bagged the 72nd rank among 74 participating countries.
- India cited socio-cultural disconnect between the questions and Indian students’ learning.
- With OECD having agreed to tailor its assessment questions to the Indian context, India is now open to joining it.
- The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry of India has signed a pact with the OECD.
- PISA in 2021 will be administered across all schools in Chandigarh and all Navodaya Vidyalayas and Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country.
- Questions in the test will be contextualised according to the Indian setting to help students understand them better.
- The CBSE and NCERT will be part of the process and activities leading to the actual test.
What is the significance?
- As per UNESCO data, India has one of the lowest public expenditure rates on education per student.
- India spends $264 per student per year compared to $1,800 spent by China.
- The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018 report also highlights falling reading and arithmetic learning levels among the secondary school-goers.
- So India's participation in PISA allows for international comparisons of important learning outcomes.
- PISA's outcome is considered the gold standard for evaluating the education system.
- The outcomes of the test will be used to do more teacher training programmes and curricular reforms in India.
- Learnings from the participation will help introduce competency based examination reforms in the school system and help move away from rote learning.
Source: Business Standard, Financial Express
