A 36-nation inter-governmental organisation has nudged government of India to bring change in its school examination patterns and focus more on giving practical questions to students, especially in Mathematics and Science, to dissuade rote learning.
During his meeting with HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Friday, head of the OECD programme for international student assessment (PISA) Andreas Schleicher offered to provide assistance to India for training of teachers and to help in providing special tools which can assess the quality of the teachers.
He also offered to host an Indian team in Paris to help them understand the examination process of the PISA.
After a gap of 12 years, higher secondary students of the schools, identified by the government, are set to appear for PISA, an internationally-accepted competency test, in 2021.
Schleicher, who is division head and coordinator of the PISA, was here on an official visit to India to review the preparations for the competency test to be conducted in English and Hindi languages.
Students of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and Union Territory of Chandigarh will participate in the PISA.
“During the meeting, Schleicher he said that we need to change our old patterns of examinations. He said that we should avoid promoting rote learning and need to ask more practical questions in examinations, especially in Mathematics and Science,” HRD ministry said.
Schleicher appreciated India's efforts towards preparations for the conduct of PISA next year, hoping that students will perform better in upcoming the test.
“He also expressed his satisfaction on various initiatives being taken by (HRD) Ministry and the central board of secondary education (CBSE) in introducing reforms in the examination system,” a ministry official said.
India has participated in the PISA only once in 2009 through schools in two states—Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh.
The results of the 2009 test had indicated overall standard of education in India was well below the global standards.
Exposing the gaps in the country's education system, the PISA 2009 results had ranked Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh 72 and 73 out of a total of 74 participants.
After this, India never did not participate in the PISA.
The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) later developed its own system for the assessment of school students' competency—the National Achievement Survey— on the instructions of the HRD ministry.
The PISA, a triennial study conducted by the OECD in over 70 countries, evaluates the educational systems in the member and non-member nations by measuring 15-year-old school students' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading to provide comparable data with a view to enabling countries to improve their education policies and outcomes.
EoM/
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