Why Indian students scored very low in the international PISA Exam. Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranks the Quality of Indian Education
It was shocking to see India rank at the 73rd position among 75 participating countries in the 2012 test conducted by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) recently.
The Education Department of India decided that about 16,000 children from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh – the two States considered the best in the country- would take the examination. The results confirmed the worst of what anyone has been saying about the current quality of Indian education. The survey has found that the average 15-year-old Indian is over 200 points behind the global topper.
This is in stark contrast to the view that Indian computer professionals, doctors, engineers, Ph.D.’s are very much in demand, at home and overseas, leaving us with the major question: what do the PISA tests reveal about the state of education in present day India?
This article is not meant to demean anyone; rather, to create an awareness to raise children with creative thinking and social skills; to highlight the important factors responsible for this degradation of quality in education and to offer solutions to improve it.
We Reap What We Sow Indian parents push children to do whatever it takes, even to skip grades, in order to beat the crowd; thereby sownreapresulting in creating individuals with a let’s-get-this- work-done- even-without- understand- it attitude. This unhealthy, competitive spirit of parents pressures children to memorize theory without understanding concepts and also curbs their innate creative abilities, leadership and sense of responsibility in adult life.
In Indian schools, children who memorize and reproduce text in examinations are considered intelligent by parents and their peers. This shows inability to differentiate between intelligence and memorized information on the part of the adults. Since children with memorizing ability are ranked as top students, naturally Indian graduates are mostly hired for their laboring skills. For example, most Indian Ph.D.’s are hired in academic labs, not for their creative talents, but to follow the boss’ instructions.
Twitter and Facebook
Computer technologists from India mostly do computer coding – work that requires a lesser intellectual challenge. In spite of the millions of IT professionals in India, we have failed to come up with creative ideas such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Even with thousands of Ph.D.’s, doctors and engineers, India has been unable to get a single Nobel Prize in Science (except Dr. Amartya Sen in Economics) in the past 82 years!Sir C.V. Raman received the Nobel Prize in 1930 for Physics. Read full story
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