Quality
The Dakar Forum where the guiding principles for Education For All were forged placed quality in goal n°6: “Improving every aspect of the quality of education, and ensuring their excellence so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills”. There may be general agreement on the need to ensure quality of education but there is no consensus on the definition given to it, particularly as it is for the most part intangible.
However, a change from a means approach to a results approach can be observed. The quality of teaching is first measured by its results (school acquisitions, professional integration) rather than available resources.
Quality issues hinge onintake rates, system equity and the issues of education management and teacher training.
Quality of education: the issues
Quality of education is often a major concern for families and contributes to boosting education demand.
In terms of education supply, quality involves government arbitration between resource levels per student and intake rates. Indeed, if the choice is made to get a maximum number of children into school, resources per student will be lower and learning quality may fall. Quality education must therefore contribute to a sharp increase in end¬-of-course exams and course completion rates.
Moreover, quality of education does not simply mean a quantitative increase in results, it should also improve the relevance of teaching which must integrate social and cultural environments and promote citizen values and everyday life behaviour.
A study based on 20 Sub-Saharan African countries showed that on average only 51.6% of targeted education content was effectively acquired by students. The various surveys (MLA, PASEC, SACMEQ, household survey and AEQI synthetic index) reveal huge disparities between country results which would tend to prove that teaching time can be used more or less efficiently despite the current weakness of gains at school.
Several elements need to be integrated in order to enhance teaching quality in class:
- Teachers: they have an essential role in turning resources into learning. This “teacher effect” is linked to the intrinsic characteristics of the teacher (motivation, charisma, communication skills) and not to his/her training and is one of the predominant factors in explaining in-class teaching quality. It may be imperative for teachers to be trained, but the most suitable formula is not necessarily long-term initial training. Short-term training (based on professional practices) coupled with teacher support during his/her first year teaching can give highly satisfactory results;
- Class organization: class size is not a predominant factor for quality as long as there is a maximum of 60 students per class. TheFast-Track indicative framework considers 40 students a reasonable size. A drop in grade repetition can contribute to reducing both class size and dropouts which can stem from repeated grade repetition. Multigrade classes (a teacher teaches several levels in the same classroom) are an efficient solution in rural areas (under-staffing per level) and more generally promote active teaching and group work;
- Pedagogical materials: individual textbooks, exercise books for children and the teacher’s book are highly profitable elements in terms of learning;
- Teaching language: bilingual teaching right from the primary cycle gives better results for students when they use their mother tongue during the first years. This anchors the school in its sociocultural environment and fosters communication and teaching in class;
- School syllabus: curricula must define content relevant to the country’s sociocultural background and prepare students for social and economic integration within the country;
- School hours: the time actually spent in school is essential to ensure student consolidation of gains. From this perspective, delays which can put a strain on the school year must be avoided as well as double flow systems which reduce students’ school time;
- Results monitoring: monitoring results in schools and districts and incentives to improve weaknesses observed in some classes are determining factors for quality enhancement.