Quality in Education

QUALITY IN EDUCATION

Access to education is important, but just as important is actually learning basic knowledge and skills I the classroom. Many children across the world cannot read, despite of having attended school several years.

High quality education is a prerequisite for learning and human development.

Quality is effected by factors both inside and outside the classrooms – everything from the availability of a teacher and teaching aids to the child’s starting point when it comes to mother tongue language or general health, for example.

Overall, securing high quality education is a considerable challenge, particularly for countries with limited resources, where educational systems are prevented from functioning normally.

A global learning crisis

Since 2000, strenuous efforts have been made to include more children in schooling. This was the year the UN Millennium Development Goals and six Education for All Goals were adopted.

Unfortunately, quality in education and in schools was not given equally high priority.

Insufficient focus on quality on teaching and learning contributes to what is now refers to as a global learning crisis. A greater number of children than ever before attended school today but many do not learn basic skill during their schooling.

In addition to ensuring that all children are guaranteed schooling, it is vital that schools offer high quality education. This is a major challenge in many developing countries if the parents feel that the school has little to offer that is relevant for them, their motivation for sending their children to school will be lowered.

Common challenges for the educational sector in many developing countries can be;

A shortage of qualified teachers.

Overcrowded classrooms.

A lake of teaching materials and poor quality curricula.

Teaching in another language than the students’ mother tongue.

In a number of countries language poses a major barrier for children’s ability to learn. Many children re unable to follow the teaching because a language which they do not master is used in class. Being taught in your own language rather than English or French or Hindi, for example, is important for enhanced learning and quality in school.

A school day characterized by poor learning outcomes primarily affects many poor, marginalized school children. The wealthy elite in the relevant countries can afford to pay for top quality education at private schools.

By investing in high quality education each individual child can be given the opportunity to learn and develop. One of the foundations of economic development and the struggle against poverty is that all children have the opportunity to attend good schools. Research also indicates that ensuring high quality education is one of the most effective instruments for ensuring democracy and good governance in a country.