people and planet

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While SABER has extended the evidence base on
education systems in many areas, it is not meant to
serve as a global monitoring tool. For that, at least two
issues need to be addressed: agreement on the scope,
coverage and regularity of the reviews; and greater
country ownership. Both require partnerships with
other organizations that are interested in developing
and applying system-level tools. For example, the
International Teacher Task Force, based at UNESCO,
recently collaborated with the World Bank to apply
the SABER teacher module, which had been previously
administered to 28 countries, to a further 27. The
objective is to produce country reports in 2016 that
will follow the SABER format. An additional report will
provide an international synthesis of what countries
consider key requirements of teaching as a profession in
their policies and practices (World Bank, 2015a). However,
as the next section argues, monitoring may be best
served at a regional rather than a global level.
REGIONAL TOOLS
For countries to contribute information to a
mechanism that assesses the strengths and weaknesses
of their education systems, consensus is needed on
how best to identify, develop and validate system-level
indicators. Achieving a shared understanding around
these issues may prove difficult. Yet, members of a
regional entity or broad transnational organization
(e.g. the Commonwealth, the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or
the International Organisation of La Francophonie)
are more likely to voluntarily exchange information
on their education systems – and a consensus about
purpose, policy priorities and mechanisms is more
easily reached, facilitated by deeper country
commitment and engagement.
on education would exert pressure on their systems
to become more similar and thus impinge on national
sovereignty. Nevertheless, they agreed on the value
of exchanging information and documentation on
education systems (Eurydice, 2000).
Since 1992, education has been increasingly recognized
as an area of EU competency, and this exchange has
increased, gaining particular momentum with the
adoption of Europe 2020, an overarching strategy on
growth and jobs. It includes investment in education
as a priority and sets two relevant core targets for 2020:
that no more than 10% of adolescents should leave
school before completing upper secondary education,
and that at least 40% of 30- to 34-year-olds should
have attained tertiary education (European Union,
2015). As part of the related Education and Training
2020 programme, member states receive guidance on
priority reforms in the form of annual country-specific
recommendations. These generate more awareness of
the importance of education and strengthen incentives
to share examples of good policy practice.
From its tentative initial steps, Eurydice has grown into
a network of 40 national units in 36 countries, including
8 that are not EU members. Its work is relevant to the
global debate on education system-level information.
It produces an online database of national education
systems that covers a broad range of issues and is
continuously updated by national authorities (Eurydice,
2016a). It also prepares comparative thematic studies
on topics decided jointly by the European Commission
and member states. The 2015 topics, for instance, were
higher education, adult education, school evaluation and
teachers (Eurydice, 2016b). The studies visualize complex
information on policy choices in a transparent way to
facilitate cross-country comparisons.
Two examples stand out. The Eurydice Network
on Education Systems and Policies in Europe was
established in 1980. The primary treaties of the
European Union (EU) respect the ‘responsibility of the
Member States
for the content of
teaching and the
The Eurydice Network
organization of
in Europe has an online education systems’.
database of education In the 1970s, the
countries were
systems in 36 countries
concerned that
joint activities
Another example of a cross-country framework of
education system indicators is the OECD’s Indicators
of Education Systems (INES) programme, introduced
in 1992. One of its three networks focused on ‘learning
environment and the organization of schools’ and
collected information on issues such as curricular
content and decision-making responsibilities in
education systems. In 2009, this network evolved into
the INES Network for System-Level Indicators (NESLI),
which collects system-level data. ‘As mutual confidence
and understanding is a prerequisite for establishing
internationally comparable data’, the data collection
process ‘requires considerable specialized expertise that
2016 • GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 363