Impact of educational reforms on student results in PASEC surveys

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity in Education: Evidence from International Large-Scale Assessments

Proposal

In a world in perpetual motion, where education systems are faced with crucial challenges such as health, security and humanitarian crises, public authorities need to use strategy to better steer education systems. Steering education systems require evidence-based data to target the best pedagogical practices for the learning of students, who need to feel part of a peaceful, culturally interconnected world for lasting peace. Based on data from three evaluation cycles of the CONFEMEN Programme for the Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC), our article attempts to assess the impact of educational reforms undertaken by certain countries over the years on student results. The countries we compare are those that have participated successively in the three PASEC evaluation cycles, i.e. PASEC2014, PASEC2019 and PASEC2024.

The data used includes information on student scores on reading and mathematics tests, as well as information on the characteristics of students, teachers and school principals. We supplement this information with data on the reforms undertaken by countries following publication of the results of each PASEC evaluation cycle. For this purpose, we have data on educational reforms undertaken between 2014 and 2019 and those undertaken between 2019 and 2024. The countries we are comparing are Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Togo.

Between 2015 and 2025, the available data collected from PASEC (2014, 2019) shows, for example, that over 55% of early school leavers and 52.1% of late primary school leavers do not have the minimum skills expected and are therefore experiencing learning difficulties in reading (PASEC, 2020), and the situation is even more worrying in mathematics. What's more, this overall average for a group of countries also conceals disparities, sometimes significant, between countries, but also within countries, notably between the sexes, between socio-economic statuses, between the types of schools attended by children and young people, between urban and rural areas, and between teachers. These disparities give rise to issues of equity linked to gender and social origin, which are issues facing most education systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Countries have implemented sometimes drastic measures to turn the situation around, such as changing pedagogical policies, introducing national languages into the curriculum, raising the level of teacher recruitment, reorganizing teacher training, targeting certain schools in disadvantaged areas, promoting equality between girls and boys, introducing global citizenship into the curriculum, promoting a culture of peace and living together. The aim of all these policies is to educate pupils to live in a peaceful world, while equipping them with the skills they need to contribute to the development of their nation.

The methodology that we use want to exploit data from the three PASEC evaluation cycles enables to analyze the impact of policies on changes in student performance.

As the analysis of results trends between 2014 and 2019 shows, for all 10 countries that participated in both the PASEC2014 and PASEC2019 assessments, average language performance at the start of schooling has improved considerably, rising from 500.0 to 532.5 points. This improvement is particularly marked in Niger (+76.9), Benin (+66.5), Congo (+59.7) and Senegal (+55.3). In most cases, performance variability increased significantly between the two cycles, and even considerably in three countries (Benin, Burkina Faso and Burundi). In mathematics, the improvement observed in languages was also confirmed, raising the international average from 500.0 to 537.5 points. Among the countries with a substantial rise in average performance levels, we find, as for language, Benin (+70.4), Congo (+50.7), Niger (+89.2) and Senegal (+42.1), but also Côte d'Ivoire (+56.6) and Chad (+31.2). In the remaining four countries (Burkina Faso, Burundi, Togo and Cameroon), the difference between the two cycles is not significant (PASEC, 2020).

By the end of schooling, reading scores have risen by around 20 points. While six out of ten countries saw an increase in reading performance, two (Burundi and Côte d'Ivoire) saw a decline. Only two countries (Benin and Niger) out of ten have improved their performance in mathematics, while three others (Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire and Chad) have fallen back. Two countries (Benin, Niger) which saw more progress in mathematics than in language at the start of schooling are now seeing more progress in reading than in mathematics at the end of schooling (PASEC, 2020). These different trends are the result of educational reforms undertaken by the countries we are trying to measure.

Author

• HILAIRE GUY HOUNKPODOTE, CONFEMEN