How is quality education looked at by UNESCO and IIEP, Paris?

 It was in 1998, that I got UNESCO fellowship as Director, Lok Jumbish Project, Jaipur, to do module on 'Quality Education'. Quality of education is measured at level of achievement of learning outcomes for all. However UNESCO and IIEP, Paris promote quality education as a human right and supports the rights-based approach to the implementation of all educational activities. This makes the quality of measurable across all the countries in terms of the cognitive gains of learners as the major explicit indicator. Accordingly, the success with which systems achieve this indicator is taken as measure their quality of education.

UNESCO holds that the quality of education, in terms of being a basic right of all persons, must combine the following dimensions: respect for rights, relevance, pertinence, equity, efficiency, and efficacy. Though, UNESCO admits the education’s objectives in promoting values and attitudes of responsible citizenship and in nurturing creative and emotional development and achievement of such objectives is more difficult to assess and compare across countries (UNESCO, 2004: 2).UNESCO. 2004. Education for all: the quality imperative; EFA global monitoring report 2005; summary. Paris: UNESCO.)

The module provides, experiences on the measurements on context, input, process and output indicators applicable for all countries. 

Context indicators: provide information on the contextual factors that affect learning, e.g. student characteristics, socio- economic conditions, cultural aspects, status of the teaching profession, and local community issues. Context indicators are often challenging to develop and measure as they concern qualitative issues. Common data-collection tools include surveys, classroom observations, inspection reports, and self-evaluations.

• Input indicators: primarily measure the deployment and use of resources to facilitate learning. They reveal whether the planned financial, material, and human resources are being delivered in the planned quantities, at all levels of the system. Information on input indicators is relatively easy to obtain since inputs are often “countable” by nature, and management processes involve keeping records of many inputs automatically. One challenge may be the differences between producing inputs and ensuring that they are available at the endpoint. For example, the textbook/pupil ratio may be measured in terms of the number of textbooks that are delivered, or by the number of textbooks in use in schools. In some cases, there may be a discrepancy between the two figures.
• Process indicators: measure how educational programme activities were conducted – whether they were carried out to the desired standard of quality. This includes how specific educational processes are conducted in practice, e.g. the application of standards, teaching quality, time on task, school climate, and educational leadership. Like context indicators, process indicators also concern qualitative issues and may be obtained through surveys and pedagogical observations, inspection reports, and self-evaluations.
• Output indicators: measure the effects of the programme activities to see whether the programme objectives were attained. They reveal how the education system is performing in terms of subject knowledge, competencies, repetition, progression and completion rates, and employer satisfaction. Output indicators may be obtained through national examinations, international assessments, surveys, and systematic field observations. Output indicators typically involve measurement of learning outcomes based on national examinations or international assessments. Output indicators provide the most important data for understanding whether educational quality and learning outcomes are improving as intended. (Adapted from: Scheerens, Luyten, and van Ravens, 2011).

Indicators should be based on context and on the specific learning goals of the education system. They should be designed to allow for measurement of change over time and be disaggregated by gender, geography, socio-economic situation, and other equity issues.learners’ access to education and their learning outcomes are relatively independent of individual socio-economic and cultural circumstances.

To measure progress towards equity targets accurately, it is important that learning assessments be administered to disadvantaged children who do not attend school. One means of achieving this is through sample-based household surveys. Household and administrative school data can also be linked to explore the effect of variables such as facilities and teaching methods on disadvantaged learners