India to take part in global teen learning test in 2021

PISA TESTS

INDIA’S DECADE-LONG boycott of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is slatedtoendinanotherfouryears.

PISA — introduced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) — tests the learning levels of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematicsandscience.thetest is conducted every three years. India boycotted PISA in 2012 and 2015 on account of the country’s dismal performance in 2009.

The HRD Ministry is learnt to havedecidedthatthecountrywill participate in 2021, and the governmentwillapplyforitnextyear.

The government, according to a source, has requested OECD to conduct Pisa-like assessment for students of Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas annually, starting next year, to help students familiarise themselves.

The ministry is learnt to have contacted OECD representatives in December last year. The latter has agreed to the request.

“After the first year (2018), we will gradually increase the sample size in 2019 and then 2020, which will cover a mix of private and public school children,” the source said.

PISA assessments started in 2000, and India debuted in 2009, with 16,000 students from 400 schools in Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The results were not encouraging.

The Indian Express has learnt that OECD has agreed to add an Indian touch to the questions. “They are willing to replace, say, the word avocado with a more popular Indian fruit such as mango,” the source said.