The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

Impact
Structurally, the education system was transformed during this period. MINED
decentralized operations through the newly created Direcciones Departamentales,
or regional offices, school governance was restructured based on the EDUCO
model of ACEs to include School Steering Boards (CDEs) for all public schools
and the equivalent for private schools, and funding was decentralized so that
schools received transfers of funds directly from the central government through
their ACEs or CDEs.
MINED proactively identified and addressed many challenges in the education
sector with positive changes evident across all indicators. Enrollment has
increased and dropout and repetition rates have decreased since the 1990s.
Primary net enrollment rates are currently above 90 percent, secondary net
enrollment has improved to 50 percent, and adult literacy is reported at 80
percent. Additionally, student assessment has been introduced for Grades 3,
6, 9, and for students leaving school, thus creating a systematic measure of
achievement over time.
In all of these areas of reform—student assessment, school management,
curriculum reform, decentralization, and teacher professional development—
the programs MINED developed in the early 1990s proved to be essential
building blocks for future reform. These programs provided concrete lessons
for program revisions and changes to the very fabric of MINED’s operational
ethos. Having such long-running programs accompanied by a relatively
consistent Ministry of Education staff allowed many opportunities for learning,
adjustment, and improvement. While individual, branded programs sometimes
were eliminated, the core principles of the reforms remained.
The greatest challenge, and the most consistent criticism of the reforms, has
been that despite numerous technical interventions and considerable attention
to multiple issues, classroom practices have changed relatively little (DiGropello,
2005). Many of the Plan 2021’s reforms address what are now seen as central
issues: teacher and school performance.
Impact on learning outcomes as measured in the national tests (PAES Grade
12 leaving exam and SINEA Grade 3, 6, and 9 assessments) and the regional
comparison (SERCE) appears little changed over time. However, these learning
outcome measures need to be interpreted cautiously. A comparison of the
PAES scores from 1997 and 2008 showed virtually no change overall, and only
a slight increase in language scores. However, the PAES test was revised and
rescored twice in this period, making comparability over the long term unclear.
SECTION 2: lESSONS fROM COUNTRY CASE STUdIES
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