Quality education framework in Uzbekistan to focus on child’s development needs

State Inspection for Supervision for Quality in Education under the Cabinet of Ministers jointly with UNICEF organized a discussion among experts and government officials to agree on the framework for quality education.

Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan recently reiterated that further measures will be taken to develop the quality of the education system.

Participants got acquainted with the best international approaches to the development of education quality assurance framework and discuss new national quality assurance mechanisms, which were drafted jointly with UNICEF international expert.

Participants agreed that to improve and maintain quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the education system, clear quality standards for educational institutions, new quality assurance mechanisms and performance indicators are needed. These mechanisms should focus on educational processes, play a supporting role and motivate teachers and school administration for continuous development. It will allow educational institutions to achieve better education results.

“The strategy of the State Inspection is the transition from quality control to quality assurance, the dissemination of best practices and standards, increasing the responsibility of each educational institution for the quality of education”, said Mr. Asliddin Odilov, Deputy Head of the Inspection, Republic of Uzbekistan.

“Priority of a robust quality assurance mechanism is to improve teaching and learning,” said Deepa Sankar, Head of Education Section, UNICEF Uzbekistan. She added that “Quality assurance system in Uzbekistan should focus on holistic school development and quality enhancement”.

International experience shows that the introduction of self-assessment for educational institutions is one of the most effective mechanisms for improving quality. It was agreed that to implement quality assurance mechanisms successfully it is essential to support schools in conducting self-assessments and making performance data more available. It is also important to create a competent team of experts to conduct an external quality evaluation.

Representatives of the Ministries of Public Education, Pre-school Education and other governmental bodies, academia, UN and international organizations discussed the various indicators of the framework being proposed for quality assurance.