India in 'Programme for International Student Assessment'
iasparliament
January 31, 2019
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.
