India has backtracked from its decision to participate in an acclaimed competency test, Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), that examines the proficiency of 15-year-old children in mathematics, reading and science.

The Centre has cited the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on education as the reason for pulling out of Pisa, which is to be held over two months from July 26.

Pisa is conducted by the Paris-headquartered Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a forum of the governments of 37 democracies with market-based economies to collaborate on developing policy standards to promote sustainable economic growth.

Both OECD members and non-members can participate in Pisa, which evaluates and ranks the educational systems of countries. It was first held in 2000 and is repeated every three years.

The aim of Pisa is to provide comparable data to help countries improve their education policies and outcomes by measuring problem-solving abilities and cognition of students.

India, which is not a member of the OECD, had last participated in Pisa in 2009, when it had ranked 73rd among 74 countries, above only Kyrgyzstan.

Minister of state for education Annapurna Devi told the Lok Sabha on Monday that the government had taken a relook at its decision to participate in Pisa 2022 because of the impact of Covid-induced school closure on learning levels.

“The Government of India had decided to participate in the Pisa 2022 to be conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). However, the Government of India relooked at the issue of participation of India in Pisa 2022 in view of the impact of the Covid pandemic and the stressful situation for children arising due to closure of schools for a long period in the country,” Annapurna Devi said in a written reply to a question by BJP parliamentarian Vishnu Dayal Ram.

The minister said the government assessed the post-Covid education situation through the National Achievement Survey (NAS) in November 2021.

A school principal, who did not wish to be identified, said Covid was a global crisis and that India should have taken part in Pisa when students from several other developing nations were doing so.

“It is only through participation that Indian students and schools will improve. It is not a sound decision to withdraw from the competition citing learning loss during Covid. Students of countries like Malaysia, Mongolia and Thailand are taking part,” the principal said.

Y. Sreekanth, principal of the Regional Institute of Education, Mysore, said the decision not to take part in Pisa was logical. The impact of Covid on learning in developing nations was more severe than in developed countries, he said.

“There is test preparedness among students of developed nations for Pisa. These countries have been taking part in Pisa regularly for the past several years and are acquainted with the test. Their children are trained and oriented for appearing in Pisa. Such kind of orientation is yet to evolve in India,” Sreekanth said.

“The National Achievement Survey is being held in India. The survey also tests the competence of students. The schools need to focus on competency-based testing and concept-based learning rather than content-centric education. This will empower our students to develop competencies,” he said.

Sreekanth said Indian schools needed more time to get students oriented for Pisa.

In 2019, the then human resource development ministry had taken the decision to participate in Pisa, which was to be held in 2021 but was postponed by a year because of the pandemic. Students from urban schools in Chandigarh and a few adjoining areas would have represented the country.

When India had last taken part in Pisa, students from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh had been selected to represent the country.

More than 80 countries, including 40-odd middle-income nations, have participated in the assessment since the first round of testing in 2000. The list of registered countries includes Brazil, China (certain areas like Shanghai and Beijing) and Southeast Asian nations such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.