The cost of not assessing learning outcomes

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 calls for the international community to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Education is a fundamental human right. As a catalyst for development, it is a key contributor to reducing inequality and scaling down poverty. Full access to quality education at all levels is an essential condition for accelerating progress towards the achievement of other SDGs. Recently, the international community has gone a step further in monitoring education by attempting to measure learning. Currently there is no single approach or best way to monitor learning internationally. However, the rationale to come up with a viable approach to assess learning on a universal basis is growing stronger as the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) come to a close and the international community advances towards the SDGs. The focus on the quality of education has led to an emphasis on the measurement of learning outcomes at all levels. Input data, such as knowing how many children are enrolled in school or how many teachers are hired, are not enough. There is a need to know if children are learning in schools and to measure learning outcomes on a global scale to monitor progress. Five of the seven education targets in SDG 4 focus on learning outcomes (i.e. the effect of education on individual children, young people and adults). This is a shift from previous global education targets, such as those in the MDGs, which solely focused on ensuring access to, participation and completion in formal primary education and on gender parity in primary, secondary and tertiary education. The Education 2030 targets highlight that enrolment and participation (e.g. in early childhood development programmes, formal schooling or adult education programmes) are the means to attain results and learning outcomes at every stage. This includes a range of topics, such as school readiness for young children; academic competencies for children in primary and secondary education; functional literacy and numeracy skills; and skills for work, global citizenship as well as sustainable development for youth and adults. Indicators for global monitoring must emphasise this renewed focus on outcome measures. While the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (IAEG-SDGs) is in the process of finalising the list of global monitoring indicators,it is clear today that a cross-national measure of reading and mathematics will be needed. With the adoption of the SDGs and the Framework for Action for Education 2030, attention has turned to defining a plan and framework for monitoring progress towards the targets. This is the second part of the process to be tackled by the IAEG-SDGs, although UNESCO and partners have already started developing an approach to implement the agenda.