ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ‘trust in numbers’ from an ‘outsider perspective’ by using two countries that are sometimes discussed as not following traditional Western trajectories and developments – China and India. It investigates how international large-scale assessments have been introduced and discussed in the Chinese and Indian contexts and the kinds of activities that this had led to on the educational Agora. The long tradition in China of testing and measuring students’ performances has led to criticism in China on the fact that for example Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is not accurate enough when it comes to measuring performance. China and India exhibit different historical and contextual relations to ‘numbers’, the ‘hopes’ inherent in education and assessments. The goal of the project was said to be to use the advanced evaluation concepts, systems, theories and techniques from PISA to establish a national evaluation system that would better meet the national situation.
