The twin challenge of equitably increasing access to basic education and simultaneously deepening the quality and development relevance of education and learning effectiveness among Member States persists and is well documented. A key part of the IBE mandate is to support Member States’ effort to equitably improve outcomes through high-quality and contextually responsive curricula.
The twin challenge of equitably increasing access to basic education and simultaneously deepening the quality and development relevance of education and learning effectiveness among Member States persists and is well documented. Furthermore, global commitments to sustainable education and development (EFA, education related MDGs and the post 2015 education agenda) have renewed the focus on improving the quality of education. The growing demand by Member States for technical assistance towards improving the quality of their education systems attests to the global challenge of declining quality in education.
A key part of the IBE mandate is to support Member States’ effort to equitably improve outcomes through high-quality and contextually responsive curricula. However, equitable provision of high quality, development relevant education and effective learning experiences requires robust and well-functioning education systems. In other words, accountability to deliver quality education and to effectively facilitate learning lies at all levels and all aspects of a general education system working interactively and iteratively to optimize complementarity and impact. Thus an otherwise excellent curriculum can be seriously undermined by the: lack of teachers who are qualified to deliver it; physical teaching and learning environments that are ill-suited for delivering it; an assessment system that fails to assess what is in the curriculum; psycho-social circumstances that render learners ineffective at learning; ineffective pedagogy and learning processes and more.
The General Education Quality Analysis/Diagnosis Framework (GEQAF) is a set of diagnostic/analytical tools to guide Member States to undertake comprehensive analyses and diagnosis of their general education systems to identify critical impediments to equitable provision of quality education and learning effectiveness; and to develop and implement interventions to redress the identified challenges.
The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of Member States’ education systems to equitably and sustainably provide quality education and effective learning opportunities by using the General Education Quality Analysis /Diagnosis Framework tools to identify systemic constraints and by designing and implementing responsive interventions. This is a key contribution to UNESCO's efforts to support quality education and lifelong learning for all.
