India has yet again declined to participate in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for the year 2025 according to reports.
Conducted by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the annual PISA is a skills and knowledge test that tests the ability of students in mathematics, reading and science. The last time India participated in this test was 2009 where it was ranked #73 out of the #74 participating countries.
In subsequent rounds of the test, PISA, via the one and a half-hour test, one domain is considered a major for the test in detail. For instance, in 2022, mathematics was the major domain and in 2006 and 2015, science was the primary domain.
Several countries had disagreed with the results stating that Indian students faced a challenge with the questions asked in the test because of ‘cultural disconnect: The other reason cited was that the test was conducted in English and not vernacular languages which posed a challenge to Indian students.
It maybe recollected that EducationWorld had also published a cover story when India opted out of PISA last year as well.
In 2019, although Narendra Modi led BJP government in the centre entered into an agreement with the OECD agreeing to participate. However, the Covid-19 pandemic struck, resulting in the closure of schools. Following this, India withdrew from the test as the country’s children had suffered severe learning loss.