Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' met with Division Head and Coordinator of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Andreas Schleicher in New Delhi today. It was the first ever meeting of Union HRD Minister with PISA coordinator to discuss the preparations of INDIA for PISA 2021. An officer from World Bank and senior officials of MHRD were also present during the meeting.Mr. Andreas Schleicher reviewed the preparations of India towards PISA 2021 and appreciated India’s efforts in this direction. He expressed his happiness over India’s enthusiasm and hard work for the PISA examination. He also expressed his satisfaction on various initiatives being taken by Ministry and CBSE in introducing reforms in examination system and march towards competency based learning.He promised HRD Minister to provide OECD help in the preparations for PISA competition. He said that India has a very good environment for the development of education and all the relevant stakeholders are doing great in this direction. He said that India has a great potential to perform better in upcoming PISA 2021 examination.During the meeting Mr. Schleicher pointed out that for the betterment of education in any country, teachers, parents and media should be more aware and responsible. He said that these three groups can change the scenario of education in any country. He offered his assistance for teachers training and to help in providing special tools which can assess the quality of teachers. He also offered HRD Minister to send a team to Paris to understand whole exam process of PISA and ensured support of OECD to help the team.
While talking about PISA examination; he said that we need to change our old patterns of exams. He said that we should avoid promoting rote learning and need to ask more practical questions in exams, especially in Math and Science.Union HRD Minister welcomed Mr. Andreas Schleicher and thanked for his visit to India. Shri Nishank said that India’s preparation for the PISA 2021 exam is in full swing and hoped that India will perform its best on international platform. He informed the Director, PISA that students of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and Union Territory of Chandigarh will represent India in this examination.He further said that India represents around 18 percent of the world population, therefore no global target can be achieved without India. He said that this examination is an important platform to bring global recognition to Indian talent. There is no dearth of competence, discipline and talent among our students, but the need is that they get the right direction and guidance. He expressed his gratitude towards OECD help for PISA preparations. He urged Director PISA to make exam bilingual so that participants from other countries can also perform better on world level.Shri Nishank said that PISA examination is not far now, so its preparation should be on war footing mode. He directed ministry officials for periodic review at higher level for better monitoring of PISA preparations so that India can perform excellent in the competition.