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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

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

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

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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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