CBSE: PISA-type questions in Class X exams from 2020

Naina Mishra
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 22

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) today decided to introduce two international student assessment-type questions in Class X exams for mathematics, English and science from 2020.

An orientation to acquaint teachers with Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was held here today, wherein Anita Karwal, CBSE Chairperson, was present. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) questions are competency-based and measure the extent to which students have acquired the ability essential for participation in modern societies.

The UT also proposed to reschedule the routine timetable of schools by incorporating the PISA syllabus so as to reach out to the students. “We are in the process of developing PISA-standard material which will be added to the curriculum and then, the timetable will be adjusted suitably,” said UT Education Secretary BL Sharma.

School principals have been told to prepare an annual pedagogical plan by June as the board analyse the plans.

The CBSE also reviewed the three-year statistical analysis of board results of government schools, private schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidhlayas of the UT as compared to the national average during the orientation. According to the analysis, the performance of government schools was below the private schools, while Navodaya schools were performed better than the private schools.

Sharma said PISA test was the real challenge as nearly one-third of the student population in government schools are from slums and rehabilitation colonies. He announced that mathematics would be the main domain for PISA-2021.

Karwal, while reviewing the graphs of general performance index of board results over the years, said there was a need to integrate new quality of education. She said PISA was not an institution which would stay forever, but an instrument to enhance teaching-learning process. She said nobody was testing anyone and PISA was just to enhance the level of learning.

The UT plans to extract material from the US and Singapore for developing PISA-based curriculum. As far as UT’s preparations are concerned, three committees of subject experts have been formed for mathematics, language literacy and science.

What is PISA

• PISA is a ‘triennial’ (every three years) international survey which aims at evaluating the education system worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. It will be held in 2021.
• Students are assessed in reading, mathematics, science and collaborative problem-solving. Participation in PISA allows benchmarking performance against a wide range of countries.  
• The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has agreed to contextualise questions for Indian students.
• Students from KVs, NVs and government schools in Chandigarh will participate. The CBSE and the NCERT will be part of the process and activities leading to the actual test.

On the cards

• 2 PISA-type questions in maths, English and science exam
• Timetable to be rescheduled after PISA syllabus is added
• Teachers to prepare annual pedagogical plan by June. It will be reviewed by the CBSE
• Uploading a copy of the annual pedagogical plan to CBSE website mandatory at the time of registration for board exams
• In-service training for principals and teachers\

‘Khan Academy’ to partner with the city 

Sources said, US-based ‘Khan Academy’, which is a non-profit organisation, has offered the UT help in preparing the exam material for free. Experts from the academy told the teachers about learning through open sources. Teachers and students can download Khan Academy application for gaining access to their teaching methodology.