"Challenges in measuring the quality of education"
The Dakar Framework for Action provides a broad view of quality which
includes attention to curriculum and teaching methods, life skills for
coping with HIV/AIDS, teacher education and training, home-based early
childhood care from birth, mother-tongue education, improved learning
materials, local alternatives in materials production, learning standards,
management and Education Management and Information Systems, links between
formal and non-formal education, and integrating democratic values, all
from a gender perspective."
"The UNESCO Institute for Statistics
In keeping with the importance of accurate data that looks at indicators
f
quality as well as measures of access, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics
(UIS) was established in 1999 with a mandate to develop better information
systems for monitoring progress in UNESCO's fields of competence including
towards EFA and to promote a culture of evidence-based policy-making and
decision-taking. UIS has begun the process of building partnerships with
various organizations and will eventually do so with civil society and
NGOs. Immediately after Dakar, the UIS launched Survey 2000 to collect the
core data on education needed at the international level for monitoring
education policies in general and EFA in particular. In 2000, as part of
the Survey 2000 work programme, the Institute brought together over 300
education and statistics experts from 180 countries for the first round of
an annual series of regional workshops aimed at familiarizing countries
with the procedures for collecting good quality and reliable data on
education.
An EFA Observatory has also been established within the UIS with major responsibility for the evaluation, monitoring and statistical interpretation of goals and targets set in the Dakar Framework for Action. To perform this task successfully, a major priority must be the development and sustained production of reliable indicators relevant to current EFA goals and targets. The Institute collects the data required to calculate 6 of the original 18 EFA indicators - 13 of which are included in Survey 2000 (see Appendices). Only one EFA indicator for which data could be collected via Survey 2000 was omitted, and the totality of core data will be used to develop new indicators as well and to pilot them in statistically more able countries. In the future, all indicators which can be disaggregated by gender will be disaggregated.
The importance of assessment
Focusing attention on the quality of education presumes the ability to
define and measure it. Countries seriously pursuing EFA need to develop
reliable means of describing the knowledge and skills that comprise
quality basic education. Moreover, they must develop the technical and
organizational capacity both to measure student achievement against these
standards and to determine how school systems are carrying out their
responsibilities.
Countries in both the developed and developing world have showed a growing
interest in assessment in recent years for reasons that relate not only to
improved teaching and learning, but also to accountability and efficient
allocation of resources, both human and financial. Significant
improvements
have been made in recent years in techniques for measuring student
progress, and considerable attention has been paid to ways in which
developing countries can use data to make the most effective and efficient
use of limited resources.
EdWatch is entirely user-supported. The continuation of our research and distribution work is entirely dependent on individual contributors. If you want to assure that our work continues, Link to -- www.edwatch.org
Please e-mail us to subscribe to this EdWatch e-mail service.