IEA General Assembly Amiens 9-12 October 2006 PASEC Presentation

1. IEA General AssemblyAmiens 9-12 October 2006PASEC Presentation

2. Outline • CONFEMEN & PASEC • Activities and outcomes • Methodology • Scientific Results & Policy Issues • Recent works & future developments • Challenges

3. CONFEMEN • The CONFEMEN ( “Conférence des Ministres de l’Education ayant le français en partage”) is the oldest organisation of the Francophonie (1960) • A political organisation gathering 41 member states • Network of Education Ministries and National Correspondents • A Permanent Technical Secretariat based in Dakar

4. History of PASEC Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes Educatifs de la CONFEMEN Created in 1991 after Jomtien Conference on Education for All Regional Student Assessment Program before 1995 : data collection & analyses performed by european and canadian research centres since 1995 : data collection and analyses performed by national teams supported by the CONFEMEN staff in Dakar

5. Objectives of the program • Identify models of cost-effective schools and schooling • Capacity building in the participating countries • Disseminate results, methods and tools for assessment/evaluation • Reinforce the role of CONFEMEN as permanent observatory

6. PASEC management Student assessments are undertaken under the responsibility of : • National teams (6 persons)  test & questionnaires adaptation, field operations, part of the analysis and dissemination of the results • CONFEMEN staff based in Dakar  overall technical supervision, capacity building, analysis & report writing • The Minister of Education & the CONFEMEN Secretary General  administrative & financial supervision • Scientific Committee  program orientations & validation of the studies

7. Participating countries & bodies 17 participating countries : Nearly all Francophone Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius  Countries having the lowest human development index  Low primary enrolment & achievement rates Countries to participate : Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda Post conflict countries Guinée Bissau, Laos  not French speaking countries Financial partners : Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Ministry of Education (France), Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, World Bank, Ministries of Education of the participating countries

8. Activities 1/2 National Reports : Assessment (17), pupils follow up (3) Cross national reports & Papers: Synthesis of results, Repetition (2005), Contract teachers… Research notes : sampling, IRT, multilevel analyses, non response & imputation, cost-effectiveness… Test development (grade 1 to 6) : French, English, Arab, Malagasy Capacity building : 10 Annual training workshops, onsite missions (over 100), Training of national teams in Dakar, Technical notes and methodological guideline (2000), Training of interns

9. Activities 2/2 Punctual technical support to countries Participation in international meetings & publications : UNESCO, ADEA, … Promotion of secondary analyses performed by research centres

10. Methodology (1/3) • Tests administered to 2nd and 5th graders in French and mathematics (+ national languages) • One test at the beginning and another at the end of the year  value added models • Questionnaires addressed to pupils, teachers and school directors • Between 110 & 180 schools sampled • One class by level (2 or 5) chosen : 15-20 pupils sampled within each classs

11. Conditions of schooling Initial Level Final Level Individual pupils characteristics Analytical framework

12. Methodology (3/3) Objective : isolate pupil, teacher and school effects on the pupils achievement and relate it to the costs  Not originally designed for international comparison  No pupils proficiency scale Curricula based test (1995, update 2000, update planned 2007) Sampling design to address the effect of particular type of schooling (multigrade, …)

13. Factors for explaining source of variety

14. Policy issues raised by the studies Low level of achievement Low efficiency of education systems Links between initial teacher training & students outcomes unclear or weak Grade repetition ineffective Language of teaching & testing

15. The delivery of PASEC results Very little evaluation culture and knowledge Political context of education in sub-Saharan francophone countries The policy makers are in majority civil servant teachers The teachers unions are very strong There are no scientific PASEC like studies in the countries Few technical background on assessment

16. Recent works 2006 publications: Chad & Mauritania national reports, technical document on IRT… To be released soon : • Guinea thematic study on initial pedagogical training of teachers and its links to outcomes To be released early 2007 : • Cameroon, Madagascar, Benin national reports • English version of the publication « Repetition » • Methodological guideline More : International database, technical notes

17. Policy issues for further studies Effective schooling time  pilot tools to collect information along the year on pupils and teachers absenteeism Pupils health, nutrition & SES  uneasy measurement  merge with household and health surveys Community participation  new type of school management  questionnaire to be addressed to Pupils Parents Association Monitoring quality (Cameroon, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Gabon)  the challenge of equity Use of national languages

18. Methodological development New tests 2007 New sampling & weighting procedures Use of IRT techniques More systematic use of multilevel modelling  Trade off between methodological development & national technical capacities

19. Recent financial partnerships CONFEMEN - World Bank Institute WB/DGF-IEA funds to strengthen its capacity building program • 3 sub-regional workshops OIF financial participation has increased

20. Challenges for PASEC • Greater integration into the scientific community • Development of methodology (sampling, comparability) • Tests equating with national assessment & other international programs

21. Thank you for your attention ! Contacts : pasec@sentoo.sn www.confemen.org Questions ?