PISA and India

        PISA stands for ‘Program for International Student Assessment’. It was launched in 2000 in the USA. The coordination agency is Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (ETP401 compendium, n.d.). The goal is to study performances of students of age 15 years in reading, mathematics, and science literacy. There is also a focus on skills such as collaborative problem-solving and financial literacy. Although PISA is conducted every 3 years, interestingly the focus of assessment is different in each cycle. One of the domains is major and the rest minor. Students gain a lot of knowledge in school education. The purpose of PISA is to give them a challenge to assess the application of skills for real world tasks (IES, NCES., n.d.). As it has a prestige, it indicates standing for the countries that participate in the examination. The outcome leads to motivation of policymakers towards reforms in education.

PISA in India

        India is my country and is not ranked very high on most education indices. In 2009 when India participated in PISA, it was ranked 72 out of 74 countries! States Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh were ahead of Kyrgyzstan for English and math. In science, Himachal Pradesh was last, and Tamil Nadu finished 72nd of 74 (Pritchett L., 2012). Though the results created shock waves in India (Mitra, 2015), Indian government’s response was interesting. It called PISA test itself unfair for not considering India’s sociocultural space. In other words, the test was to be blamed for India’s poor performance. On the other hand, the blame shifted to Indian’s favourite scape goat, teachers, and on the differentiated atmosphere of the Indian sub-continent as a socio cultural disconnect (Kumar, 2019). The shock led to so much blame game that India did not participate in PISA since then. One can say that this was a blame game, including blaming the economic space in India, for the best performing countries in 2009, China and Korea, have a GDP below the average of OECD. The correlation between economic condition and educational performance of a country is about 6% (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010).

        However, PISA also left a positive impact on India. It revealed that with a conducive learning environment students can succeed. This is, interestingly, irrespective of economic conditions. This environment can be created by parents and that believe in accountability (The Center for Education Reform, 2013). The shock of PISA led to a number of positive amendments brought in by the central government to improve education in India (India Today, 2019). 

· An act to bring in education at all the levels under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education act (RTE, 2009). This includes clear learning outcomes for all states for all subjects and grades.

· The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts impact assessment of these learning levels for grades 3, 5, 8 and 10 with analyses for further improvements.

· A four-year integrated Bachelors in Education course was introduced as a mandatory course for all untrained teachers who were in-service. This is focused on bringing qualitative improvement in the teachers to impact education directly.

· The government launched projects focused on an improvement of grading systems, assess gaps and design interventions.

· Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) developed a Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) platform. The team also compiled online resources such as e- PATHSHALA that contain all NCERT textbooks.

· Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) launched SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds), a MOOC platform for the school education system in 12 subject areas. TV Channels, SWAYAM PRABHA DTH-TV were launched with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) channel for teachers, and secondary and senior secondary levels. They run in multiple languages including sign language.

   

Conclusion

Every cloud has a silver lining. India got a beating in PISA 2009 but it led to reforms that are still going strong. There was a lot of learning that happened by interacting and competing with the other countries. India has also decided to participate in PISA 2022 as a true north to build educational reforms in schools. This is an attempt to finally move away from rote learning towards competency-based education, setting global standards for Indian institutes (Banchariya 2019). The preparation is on through changes in education policy, curriculum, teacher training, school systems and a focus on success in PISA 2022 as a point of ascension.

References

Banchariya S. (2019). The Times Of India. What Could PISA 2021 Mean For India?

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/what-could-pisa-2021-

mean-for-india/articleshow/67835819.cms

 

ETP401 compendium (n.d.). Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)

https://elliezarfatycompendium.weebly.com/pisa.html

 

IES, NCES. (n.d.). Program for International Students Assessment

(PISA). https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/

 

India Today (2019). 15 initiatives taken by Central Government to improve teaching

standards in India: HRD Minister. https://www.indiatoday.in/educationtoday/

news/story/15-initiatives-taken-by-central-government-to-improve-teachingstandards-in-india-hrd-minister- 1556357-2019-06-26

 

Kumar, P. (2019). Teachers Matter: Traditional and Non-traditional Teacher Quality

Measures in India. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/228673516.pdf

 

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2010). PISA 2009 results:

What students know and can do: Student performance in reading, mathematics and science (volume I). Paris: OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/48852548.Pdf

 

Pritchett L. (2012). The Leap Blog. The first PISA results for India: The end of the beginning.

https://blog.theleapjournal.org/2012/01/first-pisa-results-for-india-end-of.html

 

The Center for Education Reform. (2013). The Purpose of PISA.

https://www.edreform.com/edspresso-shots/the-purpose-of-pisa/