Of the 74 countries tested in the PISA 2009 cycle including the "+" nations, the two Indian states came up 72nd and 73rd out of 74 in both reading and mathematics, and 73rd and 74th in science. India's poor performance may not be linguistic as some suggested. 12.87% of US students, for example, indicated that the language of the test differed from the language spoken at home. while 30.77% of Himachal Pradesh students indicated that the language of the test differed from the language spoken at home, a significantly higher percent
[29] However, unlike American students, those Indian students with a different language at home did better on the PISA test than those with the same language.
[29] India's poor performance on the PISA test is consistent with India's poor performance in the only other instance when India's government allowed an international organization to test its students
[30] and consistent with India's own testing of its elite students in a study titled
Student Learning in the Metros 2006. [31] These studies were conducted using TIMSS questions. The poor result in PISA was greeted with dismay in the Indian media.
[32] The BBC reported that as of 2008, only 15% of India's students reach high school.
[33]