Education quality management from within: possibilities, limits an unresolved tensions

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

In 2018, IIEP-UNESCO Dakar launched a programme to support Sub-saharan African countries to improve quality management in basic education. The programme adopts the premise that sustainable improvement can only be achieved through a joint endeavor of actors at all levels of the system, who must be convinced of the need to change their current professional practices and believe in each other’s commitment to reform. This inspired an intervention strategy in which national research teams are invited to carry a participative diagnosis of quality management practices, starting from classrooms up to the level of national administration. At each level, actors are required to share their ideas on how to improve quality management in their basic education system. These ideas are brought together in the framework of planning workshops involving stakeholders from all levels, who are expected to agree on a realistic roadmap for improving quality management. Roadmaps should clearly define changes that could be introduced to current practices, the conditions for their implementation and a strategy to communicate progress and introduce adjustments along the way. IIEP’s role is to support national research teams in this diagnostic exercise, to facilitate policy dialogue around roadmaps and to provide technical assistance throughout their implementation.
In 2019, four countries decided to join the programme and launched their diagnosis: Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Niger and Senegal. In each country, officers from national and sub-national administration were appointed as members of national research teams, under the authority of decision-makers at the central level. IIEP drafted a methodology and recruited senior consultants who were trained and asked to ensure on-site guidance to national research teams. IIEP also accompanied national teams directly, through an online platform and regular field missions.
Despite the delay caused by the COVID-19, three countries have concluded their diagnosis and have started the drafting of their roadmaps (Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal). The remaining country (Madagascar) is expected to finalize the diagnosis and roadmap by January 2021.
Preliminary results suggest some common features across these countries: educational reforms are often induced by external donors; policy designs seem to be inspired by experiences from developed (former colonial) countries; initiatives at national level to enact policy implementation – development of pedagogical tools, training, conception of monitoring and evaluation devices – are often not well understood – and sometime not well perceived – by local actors due to lack of involvement; but at all levels of the administration, actors struggle to respond to the expectations of hierarchy. Pedagogical practices and learning results do not change substantially, though.
While this system’s resilience to top-down reforms has been documented by the literature, including in Sub-Saharan Africa , the novelty of these analyses is that they have been carried out by actors that are part of these systems and that they were developed through a participatory approach. However, is this enough to have a better point of departure to leverage sustainable change? This is the main question that this round table will address, by exploring the possibilities, the limits and some unresolved tensions of approaches similar to the one adopted by IIEP’s programme. The objective is to open for reflection alternatives allowing for sustainable endogenous capacity development of educational systems.
Panelists from Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal will share their experience in conducting the analysis of quality management practices and supporting policy dialogue around the roadmap for improvement in their own country. They are expected to share the main results of their analysis and the main proposals that resulted from them to improve quality management. They are also invited to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of international technical cooperation to accompany education reforms in the region. A fourth panelist will comment on these experiences and contribute to the debate based on cases from various developing countries where he has intervene as education expert. Further inputs for reflection are expected from attendees. The round table aims to challenge conventional wisdom and current practices of international technical cooperation. A representative of IIEP-UNESCO Dakar will try to draw some lessons from the debate and identify alternatives allowing IIEP and similar organizations to explore more effective ways to strengthen countries’ capacity to conceive, implement and evaluate educational policies leading to quality education for all.

Sub Unit

• Africa SIG

Chair

• Suzanne Grant Lewis, International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) UNESCO

Individual Presentations

• Country experience: Niger - Issa BACHAROU, Ministry of Primary Education, Niger. Education inspector and research team member.

• Country experience: Burkina Faso - Mangawindin Guy Romuald OUEDRAOGO, Université Norbert ZONGO de Koudougou, research team coordinator (consultant)

• Country experience: Senegal - Alioune Badara Diop, Focal Point & INEADE Director

• Comments and comparative remarks: Latin America - Pablo Cevallos Estarellas, UNESCO-IIEP

• Lessons and alternatives for improved technical cooperation leading to sustainable capacity development - Emilie Martin, Pôle de Dakar, International Institute for Educational Planning.