A World Bank-Russian government partnership - READ - is helping eight low-income countries design and implement student learning assessments.
Angola is conducting a first-ever, nationwide grade 3 reading assessment of 5,000 students and has introduced sustained funding for assessments.
Tajikistan has established a National Testing Center and is developing a new system of University Entrance Exams. New grade-level assessments will allow international benchmarking of student outcomes.
October 24, 2011 - When Angola ended its 25-year civil conflict in 2002, the country needed to rebuild its education system from the ground up. Schools, roads and villages had been decimated, and the government was unable to provide education services to much of the population.
Nine years on, with strong government investment, Angola’s primary education system has been transformed. Enrollment rates have skyrocketed, the number of schools and teachers doubled in 6 years, and , today, the Education Ministry is focused on building educational capacity. The share of government spending on education grew from 6.5% in 2005 to 9.5% in 2009.
“As many more children are now in school, the attention is starting to shift from merely expanding access towards improving student learning,” says Cristina Santos, World Bank senior education specialist for Africa. “The Angolan education system is transitioning from an emergency recovery and education reform phase to a more stable period.”
A World Bank-Russian government partnership - the Russia Education Aid for Development Program (READ) - is supporting Angola’s push for improved education quality by helping design and implement student learning assessments. Through the initiative, Ministry officials, school leaders and teachers are conducting a first-ever, nationwide grade 3 reading assessment of 5,000 students. Assessment results will inform quality-driven policies that the Angolan government intends to implement with support from the Bank’s Fund for the Poorest (IDA).
In addition, the government has introduced sustained funding for national student assessments, beyond donor funding.
Angola is one of eight low-income countries to receive assistance through the 6-year, $32 million READ partnership, which focuses on building national capacity for student assessments to improve learning outcomes, in line with the Bank’s new “Learning for All” education strategy.
Educators and policymakers from all READ countries - including Angola, Armenia, Ethiopia, Kyrgyz Republic, Mozambique, Tajikistan, Vietnam and Zambia - will meet in Germany this week to share tools, strategies and best practices for better student learning.
Testing in Tajikistan
Tajikistan is pursuing a different path to improving learning outcomes. A READ-supported self-diagnosis of the country’s capacity for student assessment found a widespread lack of expertise in the field: assessment has not been an adequate part of teacher training, and the country has limited experience administering large-scale standardized tests.
Additionally, the process for administering university entrance exams has not been transparent, limiting equity in access to higher education.
To address these issues, and under a Presidential mandate, Tajikistan has established a National Testing Center, and is building its capacity with the expectation that it will be fully operational by 2014. The country is also developing a new system of University Entrance Exams, to ensure “free and fair” university entrance, and is establishing a system of national grade-level assessments - likely starting with grades 4 and 8, and then expanding to other grades.
Grade-level assessments help countries measure not only what their children are learning, but how much they are learning, in comparison to other countries. They allow countries like Tajikistan, new to the assessment field, to eventually participate in international assessments like the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), according to World Bank Senior Education Specialist Scherezad Latif.
“The goal is to begin the culture of grade-level testing,” she says. “This involves first, developing, and then administering standardized tests in Tajikistan’s classrooms that can then be used to benchmark outcomes of students in Tajikistan compared to other students in similar grades around the world, anywhere from China to Finland.”
In about 10 years, the country hopes its student achievement levels will be of a quality standard that can be measured on an international scale, she says.
Using this tool, countries undertake a three-step process to take stock of their policy environment. They conduct a self-diagnosis using evidence-based questionnaires; produce a country profile report indicating strengths and weaknesses in the current student assessment system; and formulate a response to act on results and suggestions in the country profile.
Countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East have used SABER-Student Assessment tool to help benchmark their student assessment systems.
“SABER's policy diagnostics are built upon a solid evidence base and draw from research on the education policies of well-performing or rapidly improving education systems,” says Robin Horn, World Bank education sector manager. “The tool helps our partners use knowledge more effectively to drive education reform.”
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