Interplay of actors in the use of learning assessment data in sub-Saharan Africa

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Thirty years ago, the World Education For All (EFA) conference in Jomtien, Thailand (1990) emphasized the importance of assessing student learning outcomes, an idea reconfirmed at the EFA conference in Dakar (2000). In the midst of the global learning crisis, the Sustainable Development Goal 4 once again reiterated it emphasizing that progress toward more inclusive and quality education for all should be monitored using learning assessment data. Consequently, developing functional learning assessment systems has become a priority for countries and development partners around the world. Institutions such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, USAID, UNESCO, OECD and others, along with national governments, have invested a considerable amount of financial and technical resources into the development and implementation of large-scale learning assessments. However, these massive investments do not necessarily lead to the effective use of learning data to inform educational planning, programme design, delivery and monitoring.

Although the number of countries conducting national, regional and international learning assessments has increased over time, their use in policy-making and planning remains limited, particularly in developing countries. Considering literature gaps addressing this issue, an international comparative study was launched in 2018 to bring new evidence on this issue. It generated context-specific knowledge and supported the use of learning data in six sub-Saharan Africa countries. More specifically, it explored the intended use of learning data as defined by regulatory frameworks as well as their actual use in the education planning cycle. It then explored factors influencing the use of assessment data paying particular attention to institutional settings, interactions between actors, power relations, stakeholders’ interests, their ideologies and values.

The study demonstrated the importance of these factors that indeed strongly influence the extent to which learning data contribute to policy-making and planning. The main goal of this Panel Session is to unpack these factors using overall study conclusions and specific country examples. It therefore aims to discuss how power dynamics between actors at different levels (i.e. global, national/international, central/decentralised level actors) and ideologies they convey affect the use of learning data.

These issues are embedded in a global discourse around learning assessments. A background study on this has demonstrated that it is often linear and simplified, assuming that more learning data will naturally lead to better informed decisions and ultimately improved learning outcomes. Nevertheless, this discourse has been evolving over time and its analysis brings insights that help better understand an international landscape of learning assessments. The main study results have shown that in reality processes leading from raw data to policy-making are much more complex and influenced by dynamics among national and international partners.

A comparative analysis revealed that the influence of development partners has been significant when developing national assessment systems in project countries; however, this has not led to a national ownership of assessments. They have not been fully aligned (especially in practice) with other national education sector priorities and policies. Learning assessments therefore remain poorly institutionalized, which negatively affects the use of their data. National actors often perceive certain large-scale assessments as external, hence conflicting interests emerge in power dynamics. If learning assessment data do not speak to actors at all levels, the assessments’ sustainability remains fragile. Finally, if assessments come as an external demand in countries with a weak institutional environment, i.e. where regulatory frameworks are absent and collaboration among actors poorly defined, they are unlikely to be effectively implemented and used.

These issues call for a deeper reflection on mutual accountability between development partners and national counterparts when it comes to learning assessments and, even more importantly, learning outcomes. Developing countries are under increasing pressure to participate in large-scale assessments as their participation is often related to partners’ aid conditions. Financing agencies ask for learning data to benchmark and evaluate education progress. However, partners’ accountability towards countries they work in receives less attention. Issues such as an overlap and incoherence of external projects are often overlooked although they should be at the centre of discussion.

The panel will therefore address the following questions in the sub-Saharan Africa context:

- What constitutes a global discourse on learning assessments? How did it evolve over time in education sector plans and strategies of the main international organizations?

- How has historically pressure to implement assessments increased?

- What are motivations, assumptions, values and interests of actors involved in learning assessments?

- Where does the responsibility lie for learning assessments and the use of resources they consume?

- How do interactions among national and international partners affect the use of learning assessment data for policy-making and planning? What is the balance of power and what influences it?

- How do dynamics among central and decentralised level officers affect the use of learning data for policy-making and planning?

The first presentation will trace the evolution of the global discourse on learning assessments in education sector plans in sub-Saharan Africa (1990 - 2018) and education strategies of major international organizations. The second presentation will then discuss the importance of actors’ interplay based on the overall findings of an international comparative study on the use of learning assessment data. Two country examples will then be introduced. Interactions among international and national actors in Senegal will be the focus of a third presentation. It will examine challenges emerging from parallel external projects and assessments. The last presentation will shed light on the use of assessment data in Zambia. It will explore an issue of weak collaboration between national actors at different administrative levels and a lack of ownership of learning data in spite of a comprehensive regulatory framework.

Sub Unit

• Large-Scale Cross-National Studies in Education SIG

Chair

• Michaela Martin, International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) UNESCO

Individual Presentations

• Twenty years of discourse on the use of learning assessment systems in the Education Sector Plans of 46 sub-Saharan African Countries - Uliana Furiv, IIEP-UNESCO

• Dynamics matter: actors’ influence on the use of learning assessment data in sub-Saharan Africa - Ieva Raudonyte, IIEP-UNESCO

• Interplay of national and international actors in the learning assessment system in Senegal - Winnie Yondo, Independent education consultant

• Ownership of learning assessment data and communication among national actors in the Zambian education system - Innocent Mutale Mulenga, University of Zambia