Agenda for monitoring education progress to 2015 and beyond Albert Motivans 13th Regional Meeting of National EFA Coordinators: The Big Push Bangkok, 26-27 February 2013

Education milestones and global trends for data on quality and equity Standardised household surveys MICS DHS LSMS 1990 2000 2015 28% 57% Jomtien Dakar Seoul Regional assessments LLECE SACMEQ Share of national learning assessments increased in: - East Asia and the Pacific from 11% to 64% - South and West Asia from 11% to 44% Source: Benavot and Tanner, 2007

UIS initiatives for 2015 and beyond Learning outcomes Learning Metrics Task Force Observatory of Learning Outcomes Out of school children initiative (w/UNICEF) identifying types of OOS children profiling characteristics of OOS children Regionally relevant indicators teachers and teaching sub-national survey

Learning Metrics Task Force: putting learning high on the global agenda Catalyze a shift in the global debates about post-2105 goals from a focus access to access plus learning The task force aims to: Identify a set of global learning goals Provide concrete recommendations for measuring these learning goals Provide guidance on how measurement can improve learning opportunities and outcomes for children and youth

Task Force structure and roles Led by Co-Chairs and representing UN agencies, civil society, bilateral donors, government and private organizations Working Groups Technical experts who work collaboratively to develop recommendations for consideration by the task force Three working groups: standards/competencies measures and methods implementation Secretariat Brookings Institute (USA) and UNESCO institute for Statistics

What every child should learn Literacy and communication Learning approaches and cognition Culture and the arts Social and emotional Numeracy And maths Each arrow in the diagram represents one domain of learning, radiating outward as a child expands his or her knowledge in a given area. The half circles represent three time periods in which the task force will concentrate its recommendations: early childhood (birth through primary school entry); primary, and post-primary (end of primary through end of lower secondary). The intensity of color in the early childhood years represents the intense capacity for learning that occurs during this time in a child’s life. The diagram does not assume that all children will reach learning outcomes at the same point in time or that progress will be even across domains. The arrows extend outward from the diagram indicating that an individual may continue learning more deeply in a given area at the upper secondary, tertiary, or technical/vocational level or through non-formal learning opportunities. Key Decisions: Over the 2-day meeting, the task force came to the following decisions: Seven learning domains (see previous slide) will be submitted to the Measures and Methods Working Group for recommendations on measurement. Sub-domains within each of the seven domains (see meeting summary document) will be offered to the Measures and Methods Working Group as guidance for areas of measurement. Not all of the seven domains are feasible for a potential global learning goal; accordingly, the task force recommends exploring a hybrid approach to measuring learning at the global and national levels. The Measures and Methods Working Group is charged with proposing options for a hybrid approach. The recommendations of the task force will encompass comprehensive basic education, from early childhood to lower secondary (ISCED 2). The recommendations will seek to encompass children who are in school and those who are out of school, but the task force acknowledges that measuring learning of children in school may be more feasible. Physical well-being Science & technology

Results and next steps Global measures agreed upon Early childhood: School readiness Primary: Reading and numeracy Post-primary: Key skills (analytic thinking, collaboration, etc.) Importance of equity-based frameworks Highlight learning dimensions where further developmental work is needed Measures report will be released by May/June Implementation working group Final report in September

Learning from each other: the Observatory for learning outcomes Observatory coordinated by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics Piloted in 25 countries in 2012 Compiles information about national and international assessments and examinations Create a web-based catalogue Provide technical documentation to better understand the existing body of information Promotes linkages among existing studies (e.g., SABER) in order to generate a common body of comparable information

UNICEF/UIS Global Initiative on Out-of-school Children Partnership: UIS and UNICEF are working with partners in 25 countries that represent about 45% of the primary-age out-of-school children worldwide. Objectives: To address data and policy gaps in addressing out of school children and youth from from primary to lower secondary age. To better understand the barriers and bottlenecks Disaggregated data help to understand: who are these children? Where do they live? What is preventing them from enrolling or staying in school? This work already looking beyond the 2015 goals

Participating countries South Asia Bangladesh India Sri Lanka Pakistan East Asia and the Pacific Indonesia Timor-Leste The Philippines Cambodia Central Asia Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan

Typology of out of school children Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2011

Different types of children out of school School attendance data used: Bangladesh MICS 2006 Cambodia DHS 2005-06 India DHS 2005-06 Indonesia DHS 2002-03 Maldives DHS 2009 Pakistan DHS 2006-07 Philippines DHS 2003 Sri Lanka (no data) Timor-Leste DHS 2009-10 12

Who are out of school? In school Timor-Leste, 2009-2010, DHS School exposure of primary age children in poorest quintile School exposure of primary age children in richest quintile OOS

Who is at risk of dropping out? Age of early school leavers Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2012

Next steps for the OOSC initiative National and regional reports are being released throughout the first half of 2013 Global report in late 2013 Phase II to follow: Implementation and engaging in policy reform continuing to improve measures and address need for national survey data

UIS support for regional indicators Region-driven data collections Region defines priority indicators UIS regularly implements data collection (mainly based on existing national data) Region uses/analyses results Successfully applied in other regions Latin America (youth and adult learning) Sub-Saharan Africa (school conditions) Teachers noted as important priority for the Asia region

Making the most of existing data Recruiting and training teachers are critical 100% Training teachers is an issue 90% 80% 70% 60% % of Untrained teachers 50% 40% 30% Cambodia, 24 provinces Malaysia, 16 states and territories 20% Recruiting teachers is main issue 10% 0% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Pupil-teacher ratio

Next steps for regional module Most data already exist in an easy to access format The survey will rely on existing channels and methodologies for the regular data collection Focus on first level of administrative divisions, education levels up to ISCED3 (upper-secondary), items covering gender, age, training, subject matter training First phase of piloting : 5 to 8 countries. Full scale survey by early 2014

How you can get involved Learning metrics: join implementation working group; take part in consultations. Out of school: raise profile of national OOSCI reports, use in EFA assessment, get involved in Phase II activities Regional module: become a pilot country; prepare for 2014 launch