PISA 2021

Current context: Minister of Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has said that a field trial for the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) will be conducted in 2020.

• The Union HRD Minister Mr Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said the statement interacting with Division Head and Coordinator of the OECD, PISA, Andreas Schleicher in New Delhi on 7th Feb 2020.
• It was the first-ever meeting of HRD Minister with PISA coordinator to discuss the preparations of INDIA for PISA 2021.
• PISA is a triennial international survey (every three years) which aims to evaluate the education system worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students.
• The PISA Programme was launched in 1997 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• The programme aims to assess knowledge, skills and competencies, embedded in the context of important content domains such as literacy, mathematics and science.
• Students are assessed in reading, mathematics, science and collaborative problem-solving.
• The objective of PISA is to develop regular, reliable and policy-relevant indicators on student achievement and was intended to deliver four types of products:

1. A set of basic indicators that will provide policymakers with a baseline profile of the knowledge, skills and competencies of students in their country.
2. A set of contextual indicators that will provide insight into how such skills relate to important demographic, social, economic and educational variables.
3. Trend indicators that will become available because of the on-going, cyclical nature of the data collections.
4. A knowledgebase that will lend itself to further focused policy analysis.

• India and OECD signed an agreement in 2019 to enable India’s participation in PISA to be held in 2021.

Question: 

Q.1 India will participate in PISA 2021 for the first time to improve learning levels of children and enhance quality of education in the country. The “I” in PISA stands for?
a. Indian
b. International
c. Intelligent
d. Incredible