Who’s accountable for education?

whos accountable cirlceIt’s not long before Global Action Week launches, on the theme of Accountability in Education. This, as you may or may not know, is also the theme of our next Global Education Monitoring Report, due to launch on 24 October.

The word ‘accountability’ is not a particularly inviting one, as we will be discussing over the coming weeks. How it is understood depends hugely on context, and definitely on language. Whether it is understood at all is also questionable. Perhaps you’re not quite sure of its full meaning either? We thought we’d make the most of the focus on this theme during Global Action Week (23-29 April) to show why accountability in education matters. We’ll be following up with an explanation of what the term can mean in different countries.

Below, you’ll see some infographics we’ve created challenging you to think of who you think should be held to account for various issues in education. The full list is available on our new webpage for the forthcoming 2017/8 GEM Report.  We hope these will prove useful for anyone who’s hoping to get involved in Global Action Week, and needing some resources for online discussions.

The new webpage also contains a regularly updated list of news items related to accountability in education from around the world, so you can get an idea of how this issue plays out for people’s daily lives. This week, for example, Connecticut’s State Board of Education in the USA has voted to eliminate a requirement that standardized test scores be included in the way that teachers are evaluated. Elsewhere, Niger’s Minister is investigating the discovery that 7 million euros has been spent on fictional teachers each year. And, a news story in Belgium is focusing on the finding that one teacher out of three recruited in the last year and a half in secondary education does not have adequate training to teach their subject.

We are using the hashtag #WhosAccountable? from now until the launch of our Report, because we want to challenge people to think about the issue when they wonder about the work remaining to be done before reaching our SDG4 commitments. Our Report, due out October 24th, will help answer this question. You can sign up now to receive the 2017/8 GEM Report in your inbox hot off the press when it’s published.

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5 comments

  1. The initiative on accountability is very laudable. The GEM unit rocks! The infographic does a very good job in demonstrating accountability situations.

  2. We should improve our education system. For that we have to make sure student could not bunk their classes. we should introduce RFID system on our schools and universities. Watch this video and share in your contacts https://youtu.be/eXcpGeNnzpA

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