A new learning, a new approach

The pace of development and progress around the world is changing the way we need to think, perceive, interpret and analyse. But to bring this change at the ground level, we need to shift our focus from the more content-oriented academic performance to an assessment system that measures a range of skills, mindsets, and competence, including empathy and creativity. Jack Ma, the former head of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, was right when he said that unless educators focus on teaching the skills that are uniquely human — independent thinking, teamwork, and caring for others — children don't stand a chance. “If we do not change the way we teach our children, in 30 years we will be in big trouble,” he added.

Many education reformers today believe that the industrial model of education, which shuttles children through an assembly line of subjects and then wants them to reproduce the information, needs to change. 

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) could be a catalyst in initiating this change. PISA is a worldwide study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD) to assess the learning levels of 15-year-olds in mathematics, science and reading literacy. First conducted in 2000, it is repeated every three years with a view to enable the participating countries to improve their education policies and outcomes. 

Education has taken a new meaning with the arrival of PISA on the scene. Now, education is not being merely seen as mastering the bookish knowledge as PISA is all set to bring the knowledge out of the books to the real-life situations.

However, as the name suggests, it is not all about assessing students. In fact, it is a tool to assess the education systems of the various participating countries. The outcomes of such a standardised tool not only point out the inherent defects of the prevailing education scenario, but also help in policy making and improving the education standards.

Application of knowledge holds the key 

Simply put, PISA will help us modify our old system and frame new policies, but, most importantly, it will make our students ready for global competition. PISA marks a paradigm shift from the content-based learning to competencies-based learning, which is the need of the hour. In this age of artificial intelligence and robotics, the knowledge of content has taken a backseat. It is the application of knowledge that holds the key. A student should be able to reflect and apply the knowledge gained from the books to everyday life. This is what PISA focuses on. 

It's a refreshing break from rote learning and a step towards application-based learning. It aims to develop critical and creative thinking among students and to equip them in problem solving and collaborative thinking. 

It should not be seen as a mere tool to assess, rather a medium to bring a shift in teaching and learning in order to reap its real benefits. Laying stress on creative and critical thinking, it has the potential to produce a generation of students who will be equipped to cope with the demands of the future and handle the present as well. 

Will help produce competent individuals

Our current system of education is producing great engineers, doctors, lawyers who no doubt are experts in their specific fields, but unfortunately they fail miserably when it comes to handling situations outside their fields. PISA preparation has brought a shift in focus, which aims at producing competent individuals fit to face any situation.

PISA is already intruding into our education and evaluation system such as the CBSE has already made up its mind to introduce PISA-like questions in the upcoming Class 10 Board exams. 

These questions will require the students not only to reproduce what they have already learnt, but also to reflect on the given text, interpret it, evaluate it and even analyse it critically. This doesn't mean that PISA doesn't test the knowledge at all — it tests the application of knowledge in life situations.

Future belongs to PISA

PISA is not here for a short span. It is here to stay and very soon, it is going to overhaul our entire educational scenario. Students prepared PISA-way will be far more competent and successful. It is not learning-oriented. It is a step higher and aims to develop certain skills and competencies. Communication skills, critical thinking and problem solving are some competencies which PISA is looking forward to develop.

To bring India among the top-ranking countries, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is set to integrate PISA-like activities into our curriculum, practice and evaluation system. PISA-based competencies are being emphasised and incorporated into our education practices and evaluation process too. 

In this age of globalisation, it is high time our education system moved a step higher, and produced students who not only aim at cracking state or national-level competitive exams but also feel confident to take on international challenges.

— The writer is a master trainer of PISA English resource group in Chandigarh

Chandigarh leads from the front

Chandigarh is going to be the face of India in PISA 2021. The City Beautiful has already geared up for this as  everyone - from the high officials of the Education Department, principals, teachers and even the students - are putting in their best efforts together to make it a success.  A lot of detailing is being done, strategies are being evolved and training is being imparted to the educators as well as students before they set out on the PISA journey. The first leg of the journey will be completed in April 2020, when Chandigarh faces the mock trial, while the main survey is scheduled to be held in April-May 2021.

But the journey won't end there. PISA will remain with us and why it should not? It has already started exposing the weaknesses of our education and evaluation systems. Not only this, it is holding out promises of a bright future.

Break from traditional teaching

Let's take an example to understand why we need to change our teaching methodology in order to make our students PISA-ready. At present if we want to assess reading skills of students, they are given comprehension passages and are expected to find out the answers given in the text. However, PISA assesses more than that. It not only requires the students to read the text, reflect on it, interpret it and retrieve information from the passage, but also analyse it, prompting the students to think critically and creatively. Apart from continuous texts like comprehension passages, a major part of PISA test will have non-continuous texts like bar graphs, diagrams, pictures, Venn diagrams, histograms, pie charts, posters, ads, pamphlets and so on, all based on real-life situations. So it is imperative that the students are given opportunities for experiential learning where they learn to create new knowledge and not just reproduce the existing knowledge.