Working Group on EFA Monitoring and Evaluation

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Working Group on EFA Monitoring and Evaluation

• Report on Policy Recommendations
• 20 February 2008

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• Chair Chantarat Pakamash, Thailand
• Rapporteur Psyche Vetta Olayvar, Philippines
•  
• Group members
• Darmiyanti, Education Network for Justice,
  Indonesia
• Faridah Abu Hassan, Malaysia
• Zarinah Salleh, Brunei
• Jati Sugianto, UNESCO Jakarta
• Pong Pitin, Cambodia
• Quoc Chi Nguyen, Viet Nam
• Rhona B. Caoli-Rodriguez, Insular SEA Synthesis
  Report Writer
• Tun Hla, Myanmar
•  
• Facilitators
• Jon Kapp, UNICEF EAPRO, Bangkok
• Albert Motivans, UNESCO Institute for Statistics,
  Montreal
• Nyi Nyi Thaung, UNESCO Institute for Statistics,
  Bangkok

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Introduction

• The group agreed that effective EFA ME is
  critical in order to set and revise policy and
  standards, identify key programmes and projects,
  programme of resources and establishment of
  benchmarks to monitor the of progress towards the
  achievement of the goals, and thus
• recognizes the need set up and/or further improve
  the EFA ME system to ensure accountability and
  minimum standards, quality assurances and
  evaluation against standards.

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Introduction

• The working group recognizes the urgent need for
  high quality, timely data to monitor, evaluate
  and assess EFA progress, and recommends
• data collection on all dimensions of the
  education system Input, Process, Output and
  Outcomes.

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Introduction

• The group acknowledged the crucial role of Civil
  Society and the need for Ministerial and
  Inter-ministerial coordination throughout the ME
  process.
• Critical to any effective monitoring and
  evaluation system is an adequate budget to
  undertake the priority actions recommended below.

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Challenges of monitoring and evaluating EFA
policy, plans and actions (1/2)

• Insufficient capacities at all levels of the
  system to collect, process, disseminate and use
  key information related to EFA
• Difficulty in identifying relevant data on the
  un-reached and under-served
• Weak coordination at central and local levels

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Challenges of monitoring and evaluating EFA
policy, plans and actions (2/2)

• Mismatch between system-level data from multiple
  sources at the central and local levels.
• Different indicators (and data values) by sector
  of Government
• Limitations of national statistics office data
• Nationally representative household surveys but,
  without focus on education, the information
  available is limited.

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Good practices and critical factors

• Phase-based household surveys
• Inter-sectoral coordination and collaboration
  with partners and agencies
• School cluster management systems
• Participatory mapping, Community monitoring
• Student tracking
• Dimensions and indicators of Child-Friendly
  Schools
• EFAInfo
• School Report cards

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Critical issues (1/4)

• Access, progression and completion
• Especially for Unreached and under-served groups,
  namely
• Children and youth in conflict areas
• Children and youth in post-crisis / Emergencies
• Disadvantaged girls and/or boys (Gender equity)
• Drop outs
• Street Children
• Migrants
• Illiterate Adults
• HIV/AIDS infected/affected learners
• Children with special needs
• Linguistic / Ethnic Minorities

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Critical issues (2/4)

• Quality
• Learning outcomes
• Teacher quality
• Conditions of service for school heads and
  teachers
• School Leadership quality
• School resources / facilities
• Curriculum (relevance / appropriateness)

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Critical issues (3/4)

• Cost/Investment
• Costs of education (public and private)
• International support / Overseas Development
  Assistance
• Governance
• Debt swap for education

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Critical issues (4/4)

• Data from other sectors within and outside the
  education system are important, including
• External data on Health, Finances, Labour /
  Socio-Cultural factors, Socio-economic,
  demographics, and Environment.
• ECCE
• Non-Formal Education
• TVET
• Literacy
• Antecedents / demand data to determine standards
  (teachers/students/systems)

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Policy Recommendations and innovative ideas (1/5)

• The establishment of national mechanisms for the
  effective monitoring and evaluation of EFA.
• A two level system for Monitoring and Evaluation
  as follows
• National/System level, which should collect
  standardized data/indicators in line with the
  international, regional and national EFA
  framework
• Local / Community level system to capture
  indicators that are not possible to collect at
  the system wide level (for example Philippines
  has implemented a student tracking system a per
  learner trackings system) 

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Policy Recommendations and innovative ideas (2/5)

• Establish the National EFA Forum and sub-national
  entities at a level with mandate to coordinate
  data collection and compilation across relevant
  ministries.
• Partnerships should be established at both levels
  between sectors and with civil society
  organisations
• Coordination and harmonization of resources and
  activities by government and development partners
  in the collection of EFA-relevant information.

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Policy Recommendations and innovative ideas (3/5)

• Establishment of dedicated and regular household
  surveys on education to better understand key
  issues of the education system including those
  un-reached school-aged students through
  government funding as well as support from
  development partners. 
• Ensuring that adequate questions on education and
  literacy are included in relevant and regular
  household surveys undertaken by the National
  Statistics Office.

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Policy Recommendations and innovative ideas (4/5)

• Developing national capacities at all levels of
  the system with regard to systematic monitoring
  of the goals and targets of EFA, and the
  dissemination and utilization of EFA relevant
  information and ensuring provision of sufficient
  human resources for basic monitoring of the
  education system.
• Earmark x of total national education budget /
  expenditure towards education monitoring and
  evaluation, particularly of the EFA National
  Action Plan, goals and targets.

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Policy Recommendations and innovative ideas (5/5)

• Acknowledgement of the validity of data provided
  by external sources, including CSOs, community
  organisations.
• Establishment of a common platform for the
  compilation and dissemination of EFA-related
  information.
• Full utilization of ICT solutions to
  compile/share information.

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Feedback and Discussion

• In revising the recommendations paper, the
  Working Group would appreciate feedback on
• guiding principles
• best practices, and
• specific policy recommendations