STUDY OF ASSESSING SCIENTIFIC LITERACY ON THE CRITERIA OF PISA FRAMEWORK AMONG 9TH CLASS STUDENTS IN AMRITSAR DISTRICT OF PUNJAB.

In the last few years, knowledge about the world of science and technology has increased. This requires updating and restructuring science education. Scientific literacy is knowing basic concepts and understanding scientific processes. It involves the application of science to cultural, political, social and economic issues. PISA has focused on science as a core domain and defines scientific literacy as "the ability to engage with science-related questions and scientific ideas as a reflexive citizen. A scientifically literate person is prepared to engage in reasoned debate about science and technology. It requires the ability to scientifically explain phenomena, evaluate and plan research, and scientifically interpret data and evidence. India has participated in the PISA test only once before, in 2009. In this round of PISA, where students from Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu took the test, India was ranked 72 out of 73 countries, behind only Kyrgyzstan. Since then, India has stayed away from the Test until now. The Global Education Development Agenda, reflected in Goal 4 (SDG4) of the Sustainable Development Strategy 2030 adopted by India in 2015, aims to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities by 2030". PISA provides a comparable and robust measure of progress so that all countries, regardless of their starting point, can see where they are towards the internationally agreed goals of quality and equity in education. By participating in PISA, countries can develop their capacity to develop relevant information. Therefore, the researcher tried to study the scientific literacy of 9th-grade students using the criteria of the PISA framework. The study found that firstly, there was no significant difference between the mean scores of scientific literacy among girl and boy students. Secondly, the private school students performed better than government school students in all three dimensions of scientific literacy but the performance decreases with the level of difficulty increases in both types of schools. Keywords: PISA, Science, Scientific literacy, Scientific competencies