people and planet

10
Take PISA for Development, which aims to administer a
learning assessment not just to those in school, as the
main Programme for International Student Assessment
survey does, but to all 14- to 16-year-olds found in
sampled households. It will be administered in four Latin
American and two sub-Saharan African countries in
2018. Due to the prospect of low skills in out-of-school
populations, the conceptual framework for reading
literacy has extended the main PISA framework to
lower levels of reading proficiency for better coverage of
basic processes such as literal reading comprehension
(OECD, 2016c).
These examples highlight the contested nature of
measuring learning outcomes. The choice of a learning
assessment in Nigeria provides another example of
potential trade-offs (Box 10.4). In short, the need to
balance a sound theoretical approach with numerous
practical considerations is likely to influence whether
agreement on cross-national measures and benchmarks
can be reached.
LEARNING OUTCOME MEASUREMENT TOOLS:
ASSURING ASSESSMENT QUALITY
Agreeing what areas to assess is a critical first
step, which needs to be followed by consensus on
measurement tools. One thematic SDG indicator
is whether a country has carried out nationally
representative learning assessments during primary
education, at the end of primary and at the end of
lower secondary. Its objective is to raise awareness of
the need for countries to monitor learning outcomes
through regular, good quality assessments during
primary and secondary education. The indicator could
further encourage the development and use of national
assessments to inform global learning measures,
alongside existing and newly proposed regional and
international assessments.
National assessments focus on system-level learning
outcomes using criteria set by education authorities.
They are generally low stakes and differ from high stakes
public examinations, which are used for certification,
institutional tracking or selection to higher levels of
education. The UIS Catalogue of Learning Assessments
collects information on their scope, purpose, funding and
design and the dissemination of results (UIS, 2014b). Its
first version included 65 examples of assessments from
29 countries; a second version is being designed.
BOX 10.4
Assessing learning outcomes in Nigeria
Nigeria’s National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic
Education (NALABE) has been administered four times since 2001
by the Universal Basic Education Commission, the federal agency
that works with state education ministries in delivering primary
and lower secondary education. In the most recent round, in 2011,
students in primary grades 4, 5 and 6 and lower secondary grade 1
were assessed in English, mathematics and life skills in more than
1,500 schools. The results were published as percentage scores
with no reference to proficiency level. There was also no indication
whether results could be compared over time.
Unlike neighbouring countries, Nigeria is not involved in crossnational
assessments. It participated in the UNESCO-UNICEF
Monitoring Learning Achievement project in 1996 and 2003. To the
extent that results were comparable across countries, they showed
the performance of Nigerian students to be among the weakest in
sub-Saharan Africa.
A citizen-led, household-based assessment, Let’s Engage, Assess,
and Report Nigeria (LEARNigeria), is to be launched in six states in
2017. The Lagos-based Education Partnership Centre is coordinating
LEARNigeria in collaboration with over 30 private and public
agencies. A pilot survey in Kano and Lagos states in late 2015
assessed about 2,000 children aged 5 to 15 for basic numeracy and
English and Hausa literacy.
The new initiative followed publication of findings from the
first review of the impact of citizen-led assessments. Key
recommendations included reducing assessment frequency,
broadening the set of assessed skills and developing
communication strategies. The results led ASER India to decide
not to carry out its 2015 survey so as to think through its future
strategy. Citizen-led assessments mainly aim to raise awareness
of actual learning outcomes and push government to act. Their
success is now putting pressure on them to increase their scope
and sophistication.
Sources: Nigeria UBEC (2013); PAL Network (2015); Results for
Development (2015).
Global mapping for the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report
(Benavot and Köseleci, 2015) provides an overall picture
of the availability and external characteristics of national
assessments. Most take place in upper primary school
grades. Of the 135 countries that conducted at least one
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CHAPTER 10 | TARGET 4.1 – PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION