All about PISA and where does India stand

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an study conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-activity and Development (OECD) in part and non-part countries expected to assess educational systems by evaluating 15-year- old school students on problem solving and cognition skills. The test is generally conducted from Mathematics and Science.  It was first performed in 2000 and since then it was repeated for every three years. The test is to give comparable data with the objective to empowering countries to improve education framework, policies and trainings.

In this current digital era, a move towards competency-based education framework is significant. Individuals are never again pleased based on knowledge utilization. It is difficult to convey competency based instruction in study halls, since it requires an altogether different teaching and learning approach.

“PISA will enable India to understand various methods for learning and substantiate challenging educational transformation. It will study if poverty is the actual reason behind the limited education.

How does it work?

In general, PISA is a computer based test with duration of two-hour. The eligibility to attend this test are Students of 15-year-old and should have finished or about to finish their compulsory education in most countries. The student should have completed a minimum of six years of formal schooling. PISA conducts test mostly with standardized testing which highly test the quantitative measures and usually it don’t test the memory and curriculum knowledge of a student.

What are the key features of PISA?

PISA is conducted once in every three years. It’s a triennial international survey. This test is focused to test the skill and knowledge of 15-year-old students, which helps to examine the worldwide education system.

PISA is conducted on the basis of reading, mathematics, science and collaborative problem-solving. Attending PISA gives a worldwide recognition for the students. PISA test is conducted on international standards. These test items are related to local context and language. For Indian students, the questions are contextualized by OECD.

India in PISA

In the year 2009, India appeared for the first time in PISA assessment, but the results were not very satisfying. Participants from India were able to perform below average and bagged 72th rank among 74 participants. After 2009 India did not appear for PISA test and now we are getting ready to appear for the 2021 test. The whole application process takes around 3 years and students from Navodaya Vidyalayas,  Kendriya Vidyalayas, and all schools, in Chandigarh are getting trained for the test.

PISA 2021 India

Indian schools need to go far to improve India’s score rank in the next participation in PISA. After 2009 it is almost 10 years and India is set to take an participation in PISA by 2021. India’s participation in PISA 2021 is an endeavor to transform from routine book-based learning and move towards competency-based training. The test will assist us with setting worldwide benchmarks for Indian Institutes.
 

Interesting aspects of 2021

Here are some of the interesting aspects of India’s participation in PISA in 2021:

Schools run by Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti(NVS), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan(KVS), and all schools in the UT of Chandigarh will take part in the assessment.

PISA assessment covers a sample of 10^th grade students of all forms of schools including private, public and aided schools.

The objective of the test is to measure the acquired key competencies of the students that are very essential for the progressive world. Hence, the question pattern is not a content based assessment rather it is completely a competency based assessment.

The PISA assessment is a arrangement for the acceptability and recognition of the Indian students in the growing global economy.

Based on this assessment the education framework of our country can be reformed that are in line with the competency based learning.

The NCERT and CBSE will be part of the activities leading to the actual assessment.

The first round of test was conducted in the year 2000 and over 80 countries, including 44 middle-income countries, took part in the assessment

The next PISA assessment is going to be held in the year 2021.  The registered countries such as Brazil, China (certain areas like Shanghai and Beijing), and countries from South-East Asia like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam will participate.