people and planet

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not the main concern. Countries also need to take
responsibility for monitoring the skills of those who have
never been to school or who left school early. A first step
would be to assess the skills of youth and adults.
A new strategy for assessing learning, and
communicating its purpose, is essential to shift the
nature of national education debates. In many countries,
learning outcomes are still often mistakenly equated
with pass rates in national high stakes examinations,
such as those at the end of the basic education cycle
or for transition into higher education. In contexts with
high stakes testing, change is likely to be slow.
In terms of quality, learning outcomes are not the only
key element. A focus on learning is essential to generate
debate that has often been lacking. But such a focus can
also create high expectations that learning outcomes
will improve rapidly; experience over the last two
decades suggests this is not likely (Clarke, 2016). If there
is too much focus on learning outcomes, other urgent
questions on education quality risk being neglected.
For example, target 4.7, on sustainable development
and global citizenship, is a linchpin of the new global
education agenda. To ensure commitment to its
objectives, countries need to closely monitor policies,
curricula, textbooks and teacher education programmes,
as well as learning outcomes.
Another important aspect of quality is to identify the
topics and concepts which should be conveyed through
education, then define the desired results of education
systems in relation to them. One way to start would be
mapping how these concepts are promoted at different
levels of the education system in policies, textbooks and
classroom practices. It would also be useful for countries
to engage in frank dialogue with each other on how
effectively they address issues of tolerance, respect for
diversity, group identity, collaboration, human rights and
sustainability in their education systems. Such openness
is not easy and requires political courage.
It is essential not to lose track of lifelong learning and its
monitoring and expansion. Achievement of the SDGs calls
for massive social and economic transformation. Schooling
alone cannot deliver all the desired outcomes. Even if
the entire cohort of 15- to 19-year-olds were to complete
secondary education by 2030, this would be insufficient;
the vast majority of the adults who will be called upon to
make critical decisions relating to sustainable development
will have already completed their schooling and not been
exposed to the relevant content.
In most of countries, the education needs, opportunities
and accomplishments of the adult population are not
being monitored. Countries need mechanisms that track
adult education and learning opportunities, including
those geared to the sustainable development agenda.
This report has provided the example of the systematic
approach followed in Europe, yet even that was only
from the perspective of what is relevant for work. The
world needs to move beyond this to capture a fuller
range of lifelong learning opportunities that is fit for the
purpose of the SDGs.
Analysing education systems requires finding the right
forums and prioritizing the right issues. It is relatively
easy for countries to engage in debate on key education
challenges through their membership in organizations of
regional cooperation, which can offer the best channels
for exchanging information on education structures and
system characteristics. Countries need to champion such
collaboration. This is not a call for increased homogenization
of education systems, but rather for openness in comparing
how countries deal with similar problems.
Equity and inclusion are examples of issues to prioritize.
Much can be gained by comparing how countries approach
them. The GEM Report advocates for countries to
answer a set of basic questions on how they try to offset
disadvantage among students and schools, so as to better
understand which countries have the most effective results.
Finally, countries are encouraged to adopt the national
education accounts approach to improve monitoring
of finance. Education finance has often focused on
government spending or on how much poorer countries
receive in aid. What is needed is to shift the debate to
better understand who contributes what resources to
what activities.
This outlook provides a completely different picture,
showing how education expenditure is shared between
governments and households. What emerges is the
realization that while there may be a policy of free
education, households often bear a very large share
of the total cost. This undermines equity, a fact that
remains underappreciated by policy-makers.
Shifting to the new approach will be tricky. The
international community must encourage countries
2016 • GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 381