NEW DELHI: Come 2012, school students from India will be able to gauge their level of scholastic performance compared to their global counterparts. India for the first time will participate in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial world-wide test for 15-year-old school children being held by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), which is the nodal agency for conducting the test, has decided to carry out a pilot test in the pattern of PISA in Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu this year. 

"We will conduct a pilot test this year. This will help us in conducting PISA in 2012," a senior NCERT official said. The questions will be of PISA standards in the pilot test and will assess the competence of students in reading, science and mathematics. This will be a text free exam in which questions on the related subjects will be asked, he said. 

"By this test, our school children can know where they stand in the world with regard to performance," Singh said. The first PISA assessment was held in 2000 when about 2,65,000 students from 32 countries appeared in the test. Over 2,75,000 students took part in PISA in 2003, which was conducted in 41 countries. In 2006, 57 countries participated in PISA.

source: TOI