Page 50 - EW Jan 2024_Neat

Cover Story

embarrassingly for the government PISA 2022: Selected results
in NAS 2015 indicated that students
of schools affiliated with the private TOP
CISCE exam board fared better than
those from CBSE, a subsidiary of the 1. Singapore 559.7
education ministry — was dropped. 2. Macao (China) 535.0
Instead, representative batches from 3. Chinese Taipei 533.0
all states and Union territories were 4. Japan 533.0
tested. But again results were disap- 5. Korea 523.3
pointing. 6. Hong Kong (China) 520.0
According to NAS 2021, students’ 7. Estonia 515.7
learning outcomes declined as they 8. Canada 506.3
progressed into higher classes. The 9. Ireland 504.0
national average in the five subjects 10. Switzerland 498.0
(environment sciences was added) 11. Australia 497.3
for which they were tested, reduced 12. Poland 495.3
from 59 percent in class III to 49 per- 13. Finland 495.0
cent in class V, to 41.9 percent in class Annapurna Devi: pandemic cop out 14. New Zealand 494.7
VIII and 37.8 percent in class X. The 15. Belgium 494.3
performance of this nationally repre- written reply to a question posed in 16. Austria 491.3
sentative sample of students record- Parliament on July 18, 2022. 17. Denmark 490.7
ed a decline in almost all subjects. In Given that India currently (grudg- 18. United States 489.3
mathematics, the national average of ingly) hosts the world’s largest child 19. Sweden 487.7
57 percent in class III dropped to 32 and youth population estimated at 20. United Kingdom 486.3
percent in class X. The average scores 500 million and is looked upon as a
of class X students (from a maximum potential source of skilled managers MID
500) in maths was 220; science: 206; and workers for developed industrial
social sciences: 231; English: 277 and nations whose populations are declin- 34 Viet Nam 467.7
modern Indian languages: 260. These ing, India’s no-show at PISA 2022 has 46 United Arab Emirates 426.7
dismal scores have probably gone come as disappointment to communi- 47 Malaysia 424.7
from bad to worse following the pro- ties around the world. When the new 53 Mongolia 405.0
longed closure of schools — perhaps BJP government declared its inten-
the longest worldwide during the Co- tion to participate in PISA 2022, the BOTTOM
vid-19 pandemic (2020-21). decision was welcomed by the World 76 Morocco 356.3
I N THE CIRCUMSTANCES, IT’S education system is changing. It is a 77 Philippines 352.7
Bank.
“This rethinking is because the
Uzbekistan
351.7
78
hardly surprising that the BJP
Cambodia
337.3
81
government at the Centre
which has often been accused recognition by India that PISA now
can actually help in improving the
of neglect of public education, opted education system. For example, Viet- Average score: 477
Source: PISA 2022
out of PISA 2022 citing Covid pan- nam chose to enter PISA and the di-
demic disruption as the excuse. “The agnostic helped it to understand what
Government of India had decided to was wrong with its system. Today, dian children for PISA 2021/22.
participate in the PISA 2022 to be Vietnam’s PISA numbers are equiva- However, it’s noteworthy that the
conducted by the Organisation for lent to Finland and top nations in government’s turnaround on excuse
Economic Cooperation and Develop- the world. Today, India as a nation is of “the impact of the Covid pan-
ment (OECD). However, the Govern- aiming for that global benchmark, so demic and the stressful situation for
ment of India relooked at the issue of it has no issue with taking on a test children” was not peculiar to India.
participation of India in PISA 2022 like PISA. It is a reflection of India’s According to the globally respected
in view of the impact of the Covid own strength,” said Junaid Ahmad, weekly The Economist, school clo-
pandemic and the stressful situation the World Bank’s India representative sures — “the greatest disruption to
for children arising due to closure of in an interview to the Times of India education since the Second World
schools for a long period in the coun- in February 2019 after the re-elected War” — affected 80 percent of in-
try,” said Annapurna Devi, Union BJP government announced its intent school children worldwide. But this
minister of state for education in a to sign up a representative batch of In- didn’t prevent student cohorts from

50 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2024