Source: Yojana Magazine
India may participate in the OECD’s programme for international student assessment (PISA) after a gap of over one decade, India had participated in PISA in 2009 when it came 72nd among 73 countries. The government is planning to send students from Chandigarh and students of Kendriya Vidyalaya for PISA, which is an international assessment of the education system in 73 countries.
Following are some of the important features of India’s participation in PISA:
- Schools run by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) and schools in the UT of Chandigarh will participate.
- Within the country (or specific geography to be covered in case of large countries), PISA covers a sample of 15-year-old students representing all forms of schooling i.e. public, private, private aided etc.
- PISA is a competency based assessment which unlike content-based assessment, measures the extent to which students have acquired key competencies that are essential for full participation in modern societies. It would lead to recognition and acceptability of Indian students and prepare them for the global economy in the 21st century.
- Learnings from participation in PISA will help to introduce competency-based examination reforms in the school system and help move away from rote learning. The CBSE and NCERT will be part of the process and activities leading to the actual test.
- More than 80 countries, including 44 middle-income countries, have participated in the assessment since the first round of testing in 2000. Next round of PISA is going to be held in 2021. The list of registered countries includes Brazil, China (certain areas like Shanghai and Beijing) and countries from South-East Asia like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam
About PISA
- The PISA Programme was launched in 1997 by the OECD with the objective to develop regular, reliable and policy-relevant indicators on student achievement.
- Specifically, it was intended to deliver four types of products:
- A set of basic indicators that will provide policymakers with a baseline profile of the knowledge, skills, and competencies of students in their country
- A set of contextual indicators that will provide insight into how such skills relate to important demographic, social, economic and educational variables
- Trend indicators that will become available because of the on-going, cyclical nature of the data collections; and
- A knowledgebase that will lend itself to further focused policy analysis.
- The programme aims to assess knowledge, skills, and competencies, embedded in the context of important content domains such as literacy, mathematics and science.
- The assessment of cross-curriculum competencies relating to both in-school and out-of-school experiences of young adults has therefore been made an integral part of the data strategy. The target population for the assessment is 15-year-olds.
- PISA uses test items aligned with international benchmarks. Test items are adapted to the local context and language, pilot tested and validated before being used for the test.
- To date, there have been six data collections, in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015. The 7th data collection will be completed at the end of 2018 and its results published on 3 December 2019.
PISA for Development
The PISA for Development initiative aims to encourage and facilitate PISA participation of interested and motivated low- and middle-income countries. Find out more about which countries are participating and it how it contributes to the Education Sustainable Development Goal for quality and equity of learning outcomes for children, young people, and adults.
PISA-based Test for Schools
The PISA-based Test for Schools provides school-level estimates of performance and information about the learning environment and students’ attitudes gathered from student questionnaires. Find out more and how schools and their networks can take part.
Significance of India’s participation
- India’s participation in PISA 2021 is an attempt to move away from rote learning and move towards competency-based education. The assessment will help us set global benchmarks for Indian institutes
- PISA will help India understand different ways of learning and substantiate difficult educational reforms. It will analyze if poverty is the real reason for limited education.
