Measuring Literacy to Improve Education Quality

BRAC, the world’s largest private school system, believes measuring literacy is vital to evaluating school quality and student learning. On their blog, they talk about Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a low-cost and volunteer-driven survey that evaluates learning outcomes of children across India. The resulting data is released to communities and governments who can then use it to advocate for and make decisions in educational policy.

After participating in a training to learn ASER’s methods, BRAC staff came away mightily impressed by “Pratham’s immense network of individuals, educational institutions, corporate business organizations, government and non-government organizations, donors and overall community who help make this survey possible.”

Pratham has over 500 partners (including many universities and colleges) and, last year, utilized 30,000 volunteers to collect data.

“BRAC can adopt the youth mobilization technique in any of their rural development activities,” says training participant Rifat Afroze. “Our research and evaluation department can also help to design and conduct a survey similar to ASER to help understand the current educational status in our country.”

ASER’s simple yet effective assessment methods have already been replicated in Pakistan, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mali and Senegal.

Read the full article.