The Jomtien Declaration and Dakar Framework for Action The World Declaration on Education for All (EFA), in 1990, identified quality as a p...
The Jomtien Declaration and Dakar Framework for Action The World Declaration on Education for All (EFA), in 1990, identified quality as a prerequisite for achieving the fundamental goal of equity. While the notion of quality was 7 not fully developed, it was recognized that expanding access alone would be insufficient for education to contribute fully to the development of the individual and society. Emphasis was accordingly placed on assuring an increase in children’s cognitive development by improving the quality of their education. Similarly, the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action affirmed that quality was ‘at the heart of education’ – a fundamental determinant of enrolment, retention and achievement. Its expanded definition of quality set out the desirable characteristics of learners (healthy, motivated students), processes (competent teachers using active pedagogies), content (relevant curricula) and systems (good governance and equitable resource allocation). Although this established an agenda for achieving good education quality, it did not ascribe any relative weighting to the various dimensions identified. Thus, the Dakar forum emphasized the need to “improve all aspects of quality of education to achieve recognized and measurable learning outcomes for all-especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills” (Dakar Framework for Action, Article 7,
World Education Forum 2000). 4. Dimensions of Education Quality The following dimensions of education quality emerge from the literature: Learner Characteristics How people learn - and how quickly - is strongly influenced by their capacities and experience. Assessments of the quality of education outputs should not ignore initial differences among learners. Important determining characteristics can include cultural and religious background and the amount and nature of prior learning. It is therefore important that potential inequalities among students, deriving from gender, disability, race and ethnicity, HIV/AIDS status and situations of emergency are recognized. These differences in learner characteristics often require special responses if quality is to be improved. Context Links between education and society are strong and each influences the other. Education can help change society by improving and strengthening skills,
values, 8 communications, mobility (link with personal opportunity and prosperity) personal prosperity and freedom. However, education usually reflects society rather strongly: The values and attitudes that inform it (education) are those of society at large. Equally important is whether education takes place in the context of an affluent society or one where poverty is widespread. In the latter case, opportunities to increase resource for education are likely to be constrained. More directly, national policies for education also provide an influential context. For example, goals and standards, curricula and teacher policies set the enabling conditions within which educational practice occurs. These contextual circumstances have an important potential influence upon education quality. Enabling Inputs The success of teaching and learning is likely to be strongly influenced by the resources made available to support the process and the direct ways in which these resources are managed. It is obvious that schools without teachers, textbooks or learning materials will not be able to do an effective job. In that sense resources are important for education quality –
although how and to what extent this is so have not yet been fully determined. Inputs are enabling in that they undersign and are intrinsically interrelated to teaching and learning processes, which in turn affect the range and the type of inputs used and how effectively they are employed. The main input variables are material resources (textbooks, classrooms, libraries, school facilities and other non-human resources) and (human resources (managers, headteachers, teachers, supervisors, and support staff) with the management of these resources as an important additional dimension. 5. Indicators of Education Quality The literature so far suggests that quality is both a quantitative and a qualitative issue. Its indicators should therefore convey notions of quantity and quality (Dare (2005). Van den Berghe (1997) defines quality indicators of education as performance indicators that refer to a quality characteristic or objective, thus alluding to the broad context of performance evaluation in which the learners operate. It may also be understood in terms of a figure that describes quality characteristic or the achievement of quality objectives. In matters of 9 indicators therefore, concepts such as efficiency, relevance, importance and adequacy cannot be ignored.
No comments