Over the last decade, citizen-led assessments have been conducted in 13 countries in South Asia, Africa and Latin America. These assessments of learning begun in India in 2005, and are currently conducted also in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique and Mexico. Jointly, they cover more than 1 million children annually. The assessments are conducted at the household using simple tools, assess at scale, focus first on the basics of literacy and numeracy (extending now to other competences) and involve thousands of citizen volunteers.
This symposium targets deep discussion on the potential that the citizen-led assessments (CLAs) present to the monitoring and driving public debate on the learning for sustainable development, especially in the ambition to benefit ALL children of the world. The key question posed is – how can we assess learning innovatively to focus on the needs of all learners, both in and out of the classroom?
The focus on the household presents opportunity for reaching all children, and generating household indicators for deepened understanding on equity in education. Assessing children at school falls short of the SDG 4 expectation of equity in developing countries, in that many children are not enrolled in school, and daily attendance is low; in that more than a third of children attend other types of schools other than government; and in that many rural villages remain uncovered by formal schooling. Beyond this, the symposium will subject CLAs to scrutiny, exploring dimensions for sharpening measurement to improve SDG monitoring data.
Three papers will be presented drawing from assessment in 11 countries, and allow time for rich discussion along three themes, the potential of CLAs in: mobilizing citizens to focus on and support learning for all children; monitoring learning beyond literacy and numeracy; and holding teachers to account for learning in developing countries.
Paper 1: In school and Out of School: The role of Citizen-Led Assessments in promoting learning for all in West Africa (Mo Adefeso-Olateju)
This paper will present analysis of data from the citizen-led assessments (CLAs) in Senegal, Mali, Ghana and Nigeria. Key focus will be the extent to which these assessments have included out-of-school children, and extended public and policy debate to focus on improving learning for all.
Paper 2: Can citizen-led assessments test beyond literacy and numeracy? Experience from Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh (Sahar Saeed)
This paper will present evidence from South East Asia. The paper will present results from the extension of measurement beyond literacy and numeracy, and the extent to which citizen-led methodologies can succeed in assessing in other domains of learning including digital literacy, financial literacy, general knowledge and problem solving, as well as including more household indicators to generate more data for SDG 4.
Paper 3: Citizens holding teachers to account for learning in East Africa (Mary Goretti Nakabugo)
This paper will draw from the Uwezo Beyond Basics assessment conducted in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in 600 schools in 2016. The unique aspect of this study is that it involved teachers in measuring learning, and held conversations to explore the way out of low learning outcomes. The paper will present qualitative data to demonstrate the potential of CLAs in giving instant feedback to teachers, as way of holding them to account for learning.
