The purpose of this article is to look at the experience of Bhutan in using examinations as a tool for assessing and systematically monitoring the health of the education system. The strategy in both school-based and nationwide examinations is three-fold: (1) monitoring of standards for the formally prescribed national curriculum across the…

This is the first in a series of articles that address the use of educational indicators to inform policy. The aim of the series is to provide an in-depth discussion of a single indicator or set of educational indicators from a data-user perspective. Each article will present the most recent cross-national comparisons and provide practical…

The Tunisian education system, like that of many other Southern nations of intermediate wealth, finds itself pulled in opposing directions. While quantitative advances at different levels of instruction have been easily achieved, a reorientation towards qualitative matters is nowadays more than ever necessary. This article analyses developments…

While education is a key to any development strategy, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is the master key that can transform the world of work and the economy, alleviate poverty, save the environment and improve the quality of life. As students are being prepared to become efficient, skillful and competent workers, they can at…

The aim of this study is to describe and to explore the main factors affecting the performance of South African pupils in the mathematics test of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat (TIMSS-R). The first objective was to describe the performance of the pupils in the mathematics test, the pupils' proficiency in English, as…

In October 2004, UNESCO hosted an International Experts Meeting on "Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability" as a 5-year review of progress since the second International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in April 1999. Discussions led to the conclusion that a new paradigm of both…

The Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA), together with the British Council, provides the leadership for the UNEVOC centre in the United Kingdom (UK). LSDA is a strategic national agency whose mission is to improve the quality of post-16 education and training in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It does this by conducting research to…

In working within the complex, dynamic, contradictory set of national and international networks and bodies responsible for managing education, the author observed certain issues in the twists and turns of these networks. She mentions three of them. The first is the short-term or specific view of the present challenge of quality education for all.…

The information age has changed the economic and social environment in such ways that countries are moving from being "traditional pull" to "technology push" societies. This makes technical and vocational education and training (TVET) policy especially significant as it seeks to promote specialized practical and professional skills for…

It can be said that the curriculum was the greatest passion of the exceptional intellectual and educational reformer, Cecilia Braslavsky. The selection and organization of knowledge for educational purposes, condensing relationships between society and education, attracted her natural inclination towards a broad and profoundly political…

Ideally, there should be a global statistical picture of TVET presenting, for every country in the world, data such as: (1) Enrolment rates by gender, age and programme; (2) The relative proportions of people enrolled in general and vocational programmes; (3) The relative proportions enrolled in programmes provided by enterprises, government and…

This article presents a reading assessment pilot test that took place in the context of a process of analysis and dialogue aimed at contributing to the analysis of school quality in Peru, as part of a World Bank sector assessment. Peruvian first and second graders at the bottom half of the income distribution were asked to read a brief passage…

This article explores the factors that contribute most to the Iranian students' mathematical achievement using the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 99 data. Mathematics achievement involves a complex interaction of factors that have specific direct effects and/or indirect effects through other factors on school outcomes.…

The quality of education is an issue of growing concern in many countries today, and there is increasing reliance on the employment of large-scale, scientific survey research techniques to study the quality issues, the monitoring and evaluation of the quality of education, and the formulation of policy interventions designed to improve quality.…

The purpose of this article is to describe an independent evaluation of the impact, in eighteen countries, of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study of 1999-Repeat, usually referred to as TIMSS-R. The countries of interest were all low- and middle-income countries that had received financial assistance from the World Bank, after a…