Evaluating education systems to improve them: the need for a tool that is contextually and culturally adapted to African contexts

• In Event: Comparative Studies in Education (II)

Proposal

CONTEXT

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were developed to address the pressing ecological, political and economic challenges facing our world. More specifically, SDG4.7 is concerned with quality education. However, the latest Global Education Monitoring Report (UNESCO, 2022) emphasized that:

Only 10 countries reported fully reflecting or including the guiding principles of UNESCO’s 1974 Recommendation related to Target 4.7 in all four domains, from policies to assessment, in relation to global citizenship education and education for sustainable development (UNESCO, 2022).

UNESCO aims to ensure that by 2030, all students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to promote sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, a culture of peace and non-violence, and to foster global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity (UNESCO, 2022).

In 2013, the “Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes Éducatifs” (PASEC, Analysis Program of Educational Systems) embarked on comparative group evaluations under the auspices of the Conference of Ministers of Education of the States and Governements of the Francophonie (CONFEMEN). The first of which took place in 2014 under the name "PASEC2014" with the participation of ten French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries (Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Senegal and Togo).
In 2019, PASEC conducted its second comparative group evaluation with the participation of 14 countries, including the 10 PASEC2014 countries but with the addition of 4 new countries (Gabon, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar).

OBJECTIVES

In order to enrich the educational debate and to deepen reflection concerning the improvement of the management of education systems in participating countries, the CONFEMEN team has developed a program for analyzing education systems, and is developing it in line with the major issues identified and specific regional features.
The aim of this paper is to explain how this tool, PASEC, came into being, its development methodology, its specific features compared with other tools, and its future prospects.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

The PASEC international evaluation methodology is based on a comparison of the performance of education systems. It also aims to identify the factors associated with the performance of the education systems of the countries evaluated. With this in mind, PASEC compares students' skills with school indicators at 3 levels: students' socio-economic background, teaching conditions and education policy orientations.

PASEC's methodology is based on a sampling survey of schools, classes and students. For each country, a representative sample is selected, and tests are administered to students after they have been randomly drawn from a class at the start of primary school and from a class at the end of primary school.
Generally, the PASEC international assessment measures students' skills in their language of instruction and mathematics at the beginning (grade 2) and end (grade 6) of their schooling. Test administration and data analysis procedures for PASEC assessments were standardized to ensure international comparability. From 2019 onwards, the PASEC survey also included data related to teachers on subject content (reading comprehension, mathematics) with, as in the past, a context questionnaire on their individual characteristics, professional experience and status, classroom characteristics, information on their teaching, pedagogical collaboration and working conditions. This partly meets the need of indicator 4.c of SDG4 "By 2030, significantly increase the number of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing states". PASEC's teacher survey provides countries with useful information enabling them to orient or reorient their pre-service and in-service training to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

PASEC tests use the item response theory (IRT) methodology to accurately determine students' score and level on a competency scale.

PASEC's approach is based on the inclusive participation of stakeholders (university researchers, ministry of education practitioners, etc.) in the evaluation, with a view to setting up all the survey procedures and instruments.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The results of the PASEC2014 and PASEC2019 assessments show that, despite the progress made in the area of access to education, education systems still face problems and challenges related to the quality of learning as well as for teaching resources. The quality of education systems in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in French-speaking Africa, is a matter of concern to all those involved in education. Thanks to the PASEC findings, various participating countries were able to redefine certain actions in their sectoral policies, to take them into account when preparing their partnership pact with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) funds, to orient initial and in-service teacher training, and to reopen the debate on the relationship between the language of instruction and students’ mother tongue at the start of schooling.

Additionnally, results have fed into thematic discussions on topics such as "fostering early childhood development and guaranteeing access to equitable, quality pre-school education", "first language and language of instruction", and "strategies for promoting educational success for all and living together in the 21st century".

Finally, a participative approach has been developed with various member states for the upcoming 2024 survey; more than 20 countries have been targeted to participate. These results led the program to include families in the survey, to extend the survey to the secondary level and to integrate new issues linked to global citizenship.

PASEC is also a lever that some countries are using to set up a national system for assessing learning achievement, and to implement national assessments that include the necessary curricular and cultural specificities. All these developments provide insights about the challenges of opening up PASEC to other levels of education (beyond primary and formal education) and to other countries (including non-members of CONFEMEN). Consideration is also being given to students outside the school system, to the assessment of students' scientific skills, and to education for global citizenship, including environmental issues.

The learning crisis highlighted by numerous international organizations such as the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO concerns African countries in particular. It has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Without anchoring education systems and learning assessments in African cultures, it is difficult to expect any improvement in the quality of education.

Authors

• Valerie Vinuesa, CONFEMEN

• HILAIRE GUY HOUNKPODOTE, CONFEMEN

• Ousmane BIRBA

• Abdeljalil Akkari, University of Geneva

• Gabriela QUINTELA DO CARMO, Université de Sherbrooke