Education report released

The results of Qatar Comprehensive Education Assessment (QCEA) for the academic year 2004/2005, under the title 'Without assessment and evaluation, there is no real education', were released yesterday. Most students' performance is either approaching the new standards or below the demanding criteria recently put into place. The assessment shows that Independent School students' performance level was higher than that of students in the Ministry of Education (MoE) and private Arabic schools.

This means that there is still much to be done on the way continued educational reform is taking place in Qatar. The assessment conducted by the Evaluation Institute has covered all independent schools, MoE schools and private Arabic schools. In all, over 80,000 students sat the exams. The tests were taken by students in grades I-XII, except for science, which was taken by grade IV-XII students.

This year's results reflect students' performance with respect to demanding standards recently put into place. Newly established performance levels will provide a deeper insight into the progress of educational reform. "The 2005 QCEA is an important step in the continued educational reform Qatar is undertaking," said Evaluation Institute director Adel al-Sayed. "With this year's results, we now have a system and tools to monitor and report the progress and changes in the education reform," al-Sayed added. The new standards reflect what students need to learn to be productive citizens who contribute to their country's success and who may be well-employed on the international job market.

Another milestone was the implementation of performance levels that indicate whether students' performance fully meets the standards, approaches them or is below these standards. Performance levels represent different degrees of achievement of the standards and were defined by local educators based on collective judgments of what students should know and be able to do. "The QCEA results allow better decision-making about our children's education," he said.

"The Supreme Education Council (SEC) can make better policy decisions, teachers can make more informed curriculum choices and parents can use the results to gain a better understanding of schools." Along with the QCEA, Qatar will also take part, in March 2006, in the international studies known as PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS, which will provide additional information on how education reform is progressing and how Qatar's students compare globally.

The QCEA also feeds data to the school evaluation system, which provides parents and others with information about various aspects of a school. "What we discover from the QCEA and international studies Qatar participates in, will help us take action in areas such as curriculum design, teachers' professional development and test development so that we achieve the ultimate goal of the reform: increased and improved student learning," said al-Sayed. "It is, therefore, an international duty for everyone to take these assessments seriously.

"Assessments and evaluation are key to the continued success of Education for a New Era in Qatar. Our work has just begun." Al-Sayed also announced that assessment results should not be taken as "a sword on the neck", but more as "a light that guides us toward progress". He said detailed evaluation reports are to be delivered to all schools. "The Evaluation Institute would invite officials from each school for a meeting to highlight and review their performance level," he added.