India's preparation for PISA 2021

Arshpreet Kaur

Human Resource Development Ministry (MHRD) has signed an agreement with

the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for India’s
participation in ‘Programme for International Student Assessment’- PISA 2021.
OECD is an intergovernmental economic organisation to stimulate economic
progress and world trade. The students will be selected through merit in practice
tests conducted by schools. Students of government schools of Chandigarh, 3000
Kendriya Vidyalayas and 600 Navodaya Vidyalayas around the country will be
participating in PISA.

What is PISA?
PISA is a globally standardized test to assess reading, mathematics, and science
literacy of students aged 15 years — at an age when the IQ of a student is fully
developed.PISA tests the functional skills that students have acquired in the
subjects by this time.

OECD introduced the PISA test in 2000 and has conducted it every three years.

India at PISA

India has participated only once in the PISA test in 2009. In PISA 2009, students
from Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu sat for the test, India ranked 72nd out of
73 countries, outranking only Kyrgyzstan. After 2009 the government boycotted
the competition stating it as “unfair”. The NDA government decided to end the
boycott as the participation will help in economic development.

PISA is not just a friendly exam to promote trade and economic development but
it also evaluates the education quality and system of a nation.
Alka Mehta, District Education Officer, Chandigarh takes PISA as a challenge that
is going to help the children. “The participation in this test is in good spirit as our
education system is entirely based on rote learning and memorization. PISA keeps
a check on how good and efficient our children are!” said Mehta.
How are students preparing for the test?

In order to improve learning outcomes, the NCERT (National Council of

Educational Research and Training ) is working on the course material, especially
in mathematics. An official said, “We have found that students across the country
are struggling with certain aspects of mathematics. That needs special attention.
Meanwhile, play-way learning for elementary classes is also being worked on.”

The preparations for the test have reportedly already begun since a team of PISA
officials will conduct a trial test in the participating schools in mid- 2020. Officials
from the NCERT learnt that students had performed poorly particularly in the
Mathematics segment of the test that the last time Indian students had participated
in 2009 in the PISA evaluation.

“We are focusing on developing the reasoning ability of the students as it is the
trickiest part of the paper. Moreover, due to an international setting of the question
paper might confuse the students,” said Divya Sharma, a teacher at Kendriya
Vidyalaya, RK Puram.

The schools are providing extra classes for the preparation where teachers are
focusing on problem-solving and regular tests in the same format as PISA. The
teachers are also focusing on personal interaction with the students for helping
them with problems and telling ways to perform better.

Apart from the preparation techniques the schools also focus on the spirits of the
students to boost their confidence.
“PISA is an opportunity to represent our country at the international level and at a
young age. I'm really working hard for it studying extra books and also been
working on my time management skills,” said Vivek Singh, a student of Kendriya
Vidyalaya, Vasant Kunj.

Manpreet Kaur, a student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Chandigarh said

“Preparing for PISA is just like preparing for some other exam but the only
shortcoming I feel is whenever we attempt an exam we know that it’ll come from a
specific book but now we don’t know! We will get questions from the
surroundings! The only fact that scares me is I might know the answer but what if I

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couldn’t understand the question? Keeping my fears, aside I am preparing my
best.”

Teachers and students are preparing their best to perform on the international
platform. Where some students are excited about it some are nervous as there is
continuous pressure of outcoming the tag of poor performance in 2009.