NN37, May 2006
Special Theme on Education and Training out of Poverty? A Status Report
THE IIEP?S PROGRAMME OF COOPERATION WITH SACMEQ
By Kenneth N. Ross, IIEP Paris
[Achieving quality in education for all is critical to any meaningful strategy for educating out of poverty. Hence the value of this contribution from IIEP on SACMEQ. Ed.]One of the key features of the worldwide discussion and debate about the need to achieve ?Educational for All? has been a broader interpretation of this challenge to ensure that increased participation in education is delivered in association with improvements in the quality of the conditions of schooling and student achievement levels. This intense focus on quality has been encouraged by the emerging belief that education systems can act as pathways to national economic development in an increasingly globalized world.
These trends, coupled with the enormous expenditures by governments on education, have precipitated demands for more information and accountability concerning the quality of education. Governments can only respond to these demands if they have trained personnel who are able to employ modern research methodologies to make valid comparisons of (a) the performance of single education systems across several time points (?Are we improving, or staying the same, or getting worse??), and (b) the relative performance of several school systems ? particularly those that share similar socioeconomic conditions, ethnic profiles, and patterns of historical development (?Are we better, or worse, or the same as other countries like us??).
Most industrialized nations have already established arrangements for monitoring and evaluating the quality of education as part of the normal operations of their management information systems. The IIEP has, with the generous continuing assistance of the Government of the Netherlands, worked for over a decade with a number of ministries of education in developing countries to build the capacities of their professional staff to conceptualize and manage similar monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The IIEP?s work in this area has included extensive technical and logistical support for the cooperative educational policy research and training programmes conducted by the fourteen countries (Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania (Mainland), Tanzania (Zanzibar), Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) that together comprise the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring the Quality of Education (SACMEQ).
The gradual evolution of the SACMEQ network ? from its humble origins in 1995 as a small experimental IIEP sub-regional training programme conducted in Zimbabwe to its current status as a formal Intergovernmental Organization ? has been remarkable. SACMEQ now has a full-time Director, it has completed two large-scale cross national-studies and is commencing a third, it has become an important source for training in quantitative research methods, and it has a unique governance structure that ensures Ministerial involvement in the choice and implementation of its own research and training programmes. The IIEP has accommodated these important developments for SACMEQ by moving from its earlier ?centre stage? role in the design and delivery of SACMEQ activities to its more recent role of an ?external friend? who is ready ? upon request ? to provide training and guidance to support the directions that SACMEQ has selected according to its own objectives and requirements.
The main focus of the IIEP?s cooperation with the SACMEQ Consortium during 2005 was concerned with expanding the dissemination of SACMEQ?s information resources with the aim of encouraging wider usage of these for educational policy purposes. The three ?vehicles? for this initiative were the launch and improvement of the SACMEQ Website, the further distribution and support of updated versions of the SACMEQ Data Archive, and the organization of the inaugural biennial SACMEQ International Research Conference.
The SACMEQ Website contains a wealth of useful research-based information about the quality of education in Africa. Throughout 2005 it was receiving around 600 to 800 visitors per month. In late 2005 the site was expanded to contain a comprehensive downloadable coverage of SACMEQ research reports, published articles, and data tabulations. In addition, SACMEQ training modules were made available for download ? and these have proved to be very popular with professors and postgraduate students.
Updated versions of the SACMEQ Data Archive were also prepared and distributed to some 150 ?registered users? around the world. During 2005 the archive was used at national levels to prepare a range of educational policy reports, and at the international level for projects such as the 2005 and 2006 issues of UNESCO?s Education for All Global Monitoring Report.
In September 2005 the IIEP hosted the inaugural biennial SACMEQ International Research Conference ? which attracted research papers from 50 senior professors and researchers located in Africa, Australia, China, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, and Vietnam. Seven papers presented at the conference were awarded the 2005 SACMEQ Research Medal in recognition of their quality and their utility for educational policy purposes.
In recent months several IIEP staff members have been working with SACMEQ researchers to prepare a cross-national research proposal and an associated budget that will be used by the SACMEQ Coordinating Centre and the SACMEQ countries to apply for donor funding in support of the SACMEQ III Project. During 2006 this large-scale initiative is scheduled to deliver a series of training workshops and to conduct a major data collection.
The implementation of the SACMEQ III Project will mark a turning point in the nature of the support that IIEP provides for the SACMEQ network. In 2006 a premium will be placed on transforming the more experienced SACMEQ National Research Coordinators from ?trainees? into ?trainers?. This process commenced in 2005 ? but will be accelerated during 2006 with the aim of establishing SACMEQ as an African-based source of advanced training in quantitative policy research methods. The aim here is to deepen the pool of trained educational planners and researchers in the SACMEQ countries so that SACMEQ itself can fully guide and sustain its own research programmes.