UNESCO’s understanding of education quality

Atilio PizarroSection Chief for Planning, Management, Monitoring and EvaluationOREALC/UNESCO Santiago

International Commitments on Education

Millennium Development Goals

2. Achieve universal primary education

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

1. Expanding early childhood care and education

2. Free and compulsory primary education for all

3. Learning & life skills for young people and adults

4. Increase adult literacy

5. Eliminating gender disparities and achieving gender equality

6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education

EFA Dakar Goals

2015

Assessing progress towards EFA Assessing progress towards EFA GoalsGoalsin Latin America and the Caribbeanin Latin America and the Caribbean UPE is no longer a challenge with overall 95%

enrolment (UIS, 2008)

Access to pre-primary level (ECCE), as well as access and completion of secondary education & TVET, are serious concerns.

Half of the youth population (20 to 24 years) have not completed secondary education, the threshold for being out of poverty.

Need to improve quality of education at all levels.

The great social inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean is a problem that education has not yet been able to solve.

EFA Goal 6 Remains a Challenge

Undeniable progress toward expanding access to education

It has not been met by comparable progress in improving education quality, which affect, to a large extent, the most vulnerable individuals and groups.

This is a permanent challenge in the region that shall continue beyond 2015

Ensure that Education for All (EFA) remains a priority on the global agenda,

Support countries’ efforts to meet the six EFA goals by 2015, with a specific emphasis on equity.

Act beyond this: Sustainable development

Inclusion,

Social cohesion and social justice,

Life-long learning

Higher education and research.

UNESCO Must

Why focus on Quality? Need to increase the effectiveness of

education and training systems.

Need to reduce the observed inequalities among various categories of the population.

Growing diversity and complexity of societies: Migration, Urbanization, Cultural globalization, and Greater access to expanding sources and

channels of transmission of information, knowledge and values.

An effective means to fight poverty, Empowers individuals, Prepares people to embrace and adapt to

change but also to manage and influence it, Build democracies, and foster peaceful

societies, A human right and public good Is an indispensable element for achieving

sustainable development Long life learning

Quality education Quality education

Learning to know

Learning to do

Learning to live together

Learning to be

Learning: The Treasure Within, Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, Jacques Delors (1996):

UNESCO’s understanding of education UNESCO’s understanding of education qualityquality

Two 2 key elements : To ensure the cognitive development of

learners In nurturing the creative and emotional

growth of learners and in helping them to acquire values and attitudes for responsible citizenship

Quality – the purpose of Education Quality – the purpose of Education

Frequent approach: quality is equal to the efficiency and effectiveness

Multidimensional concept

Implies a value judgment

A dynamic concept that changes and evolves with time and changes

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What Do We Mean by Education Quality?What Do We Mean by Education Quality?

New times, new demands in LAC

The countries of the region are living large social and political changes: new paradigms and models of development, new constitutional frameworks and reforms to the education laws.

Constitutional and legal mandates pose profound challenges to education systems.

A rights-based approach: a paradigm shift; EFA/PRELAC (UNESCO, 2002)

• . To go from an emphasis on inputs and structures

to one on people

To go from mere transmission of content and understanding to comprehensive development of human beings.

To go from homogeneity to diversity

To go from focus placed on schools alone as venues for education to ‘educating society’

Education is a public good and a human right from which nobody can be excluded

Calls for inclusive quality education A particular focus on vulnerable and

marginalized groups. Schooling be free and obligatory Rights of non-discrimination and full

participation. Assure equity in three dimensions: in

access, in process, and in results.

UNESCO’s holistic and rights-based UNESCO’s holistic and rights-based approachapproach

Quality Education for All: a human rights issueOREALC / UNESCO Santiago (2007),www.unesco.cl

Under the rights framework base for

quality of education, it has been

identified three substantive aspects:RelevancePertinenceEquity

Also, since being a public action matter, it is included two key operational aspects under the rights approach:EfficacyEfficiency

QualityEducation

Pertinence

Relevance

Efficiency

Efficacy

Equity

•Diversity and flexibility• Curriculum• Regulation• Classroom practices/assessment analysis

Objective achievement, curriculum management• Access• Completion• Students academic achievement• Teachers (who are they, conditions, practices)• Climate

Finance, resources management, social responsibility• Management, participation• Availability/use of resources

Inclusion, equal opportunities, resources• Achievement parity (efficacy)• Tendencies• Alternative education/positive discrimination

Rights, 4 pillars, meanings• Curriculum• Regulation• Practices/assessment

What Do We Mean by Education Quality?What Do We Mean by Education Quality?A broad concept of quality education:

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Beyond 2015 –Where do we go from here? Rethinking quality of education:

how do the various aspects of quality relate to each other? Pedagogical methods, assessment of and for learning, 21st century skills, etc.

Education convergence in LAC

Creating a suite of education quality indicators

Need to asses and understand the impact of education in mitigating inequity

Teachers are key

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Thank you