Assessing the quality of education in the Euro-Mediterranean region

Abstract

To properly assess the quality of education, one needs to first of all define what ‘quality’ in education actually is, and the extent to which this can be measured, if at all. If by ‘quality’ one refers to student attainment in standardized tests in such subjects as mathematics, science, language competence, and so on, then the news from the Euro-Mediterranean region has been somewhat disheartening. Statistics generated by organizations comparing achievement across a range of ‘core’ curriculum areas and competences have consistently shown that students from the Arab states underperform when compared to other students from countries with a similar GDP. This is true, for instance, for the results obtained in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA – a triennial international survey of reading, maths and science skills and knowledge involving more than half a million students from 65 economies), and in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS – conducted every four years to assess proficiency in mathematics and science of 9-10 and 13-14 year olds), which is coordinated by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. These assessments include the Gulf States beyond those in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in their purview. However its contours are defined, the region is clearly performing below the level expected given the participating countries’ per capita income. In the TIMSS study of 2007, none of the MENA countries scored at or above the global average and most were clustered at the bottom of the table with countries that had much lower levels of per capita income. TIMSS 2011 showed some improvement for 13 countries, while seven had deteriorated. Using such international statistical evidence to compare eighth graders in MENA at different levels of achievement to an international benchmark, the World Bank notes that in absolute terms, MENA countries fail to raise even half their student population to ‘low’ levels of learning. While MENA has a large number of low and very low achievers, it has few high performers at the other end of the scale.