How the CONFEMEN education systems analysis program (PASEC) impacts education policies

Read how PASEC works to support national learning assessment systems and its added value to improve education in Africa.

January 23, 2025 by Hilaire Hounkpodoté, Conférence des ministres de l’Education des Etats et gouvernements de la Francophonie (CONFEMEN), and Adama Bologo, Conférence des ministres de l’Education des Etats et gouvernements de la Francophonie (CONFEMEN)
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4 minutes read
Teacher Léandre Benon and student Mariam at the blackboard at the Akoitchaou primary school, located near Kandi, in the north of Benin. Credit: GPE/Chantal Rigaud

Teacher Léandre Benon and student Mariam at the blackboard at the Akoitchaou primary school, located near Kandi, in the north of Benin.

Credit: GPE/Chantal Rigaud

This blog is part of a series initiated within the framework of the forum “Apprendre pour demain" taking place from January 28-30, 2025 in Dakar, Senegal.

The “Conférence des Ministres de l'Éducation des États et Gouvernements de la Francophonie” (CONFEMEN) plays a critical role in improving the quality of education in its member states, notably through the Programme d'Analyse des Systèmes Éducatifs (PASEC – Education Systems Analysis Program) started in 1991.

This program aims to measure the performance of education systems, support the development of in-country capacities and promote research with a view to impacting educational policies.

PASEC periodically assesses students' skills, particularly in reading and mathematics, to identify efficiency and equity enablers in education systems. The program has conducted international assessments, such as PASEC2014 (10 countries) and PASEC2019 (14 countries), allowing for comparing educational performance.

The PASEC2024 cycle involves 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (20 of which are GPE partner countries) including French, Portuguese- and English-speaking countries:

  • Assessing students' skills at the start and end of primary school, and at middle school.
  • A survey of teachers, including the content taught (in reading and mathematics) and the teaching methods of these subjects, in order to develop recommendations for pre-service and in-service training.
  • A survey of school directors, parents and teachers to broaden the analyses.

In addition, PASEC offers tailor-made support to build the capacity of countries to assess learning and set up national monitoring and assessment systems.

PASEC's role in supporting education policies

  • PASEC—a valuable program for improving education in Africa:
    Inclusive and quality education requires regular learning assessments to inform policies and action plans. PASEC provides comparable, standardized data to help decision makers identify gaps and implement relevant reforms. These assessments foster a culture of continuous improvement across the continent, while fitting to the cultural and linguistic contexts of participating countries. As part of this commitment to knowledge exchange and continuous improvement, CONFEMEN-PASEC has decided to organize a Forum with the support from the Gates Foundation that brings together the 21 countries participating in PASEC2024 along with global experts and partners to discuss improving learning across the continent (see this introduction blog for more information on the forum).
  • PASEC, a contextualized approach co-constructed with participating countries:
    The data collected by PASEC enables governments to better target their priorities and focus their resources on effective interventions. They reveal disparities in educational performance, prompting collaborative initiatives to close these gaps. Additionally, these assessments encourage the development of education policies that are adapted to local needs and rooted in evidence.

How PASEC supports national learning assessment systems

Learning assessment is a strategic tool for improving education quality. As part of its 2022-2026 strategic plan, CONFEMEN aims to strengthen national monitoring and assessment systems so that countries can effectively manage their education systems and make results-based decisions through: diagnostics, the development of strategies to create or improve national assessment systems and the development of action plans.

This support is in response to recommendations from decision maker workshops organized by CONFEMEN in May 2014 and June 2023, and stems from the memorandum issued at CONFEMEN's 51st ministerial session where ministers undertook to:

  • facilitate the establishment of a national evaluation system with an appropriate institutional base and that is adequately staffed and resourced;
  • develop, articulate and enhance these national mechanisms through specialized trainings.

The diagnostics carried out by CONFEMEN in partnership with governments help to identify existing gaps in the management and monitoring of school performance, suggesting specific solutions and technical support. The training for national teams equips local stakeholders with the skills needed to conduct assessments independently.

CONFEMEN's country support for better use of evaluation results

Several studies, including a CONFEMEN study in 2019, have revealed that the results of evaluations are poorly exploited, due to a limited evaluation culture.

To remedy this, a new CONFEMEN program, PACTE (Programme d'Appui au Changement et à la Transformation de l'Éducation) is stepping up support to countries through pilot projects so that findings from evaluations inform decisions in education.

CONFEMEN recommends developing action plans to disseminate and harness the results of evaluations.

A pilot project in eight countries, funded by the French Development Agency (AFD), helped communicate results from the PASEC2019 evaluation at a decentralized level in each country and the establishment of roadmaps with follow-up mechanisms to put evaluation results into practice.

To maximize the impact of evaluations, CONFEMEN further recommends that countries:

  • Advocate for the mobilization of financial resources to fund the dissemination and exploitation of PASEC2024 evaluation results.
  • Systematically use results in country participation in assessment cycles.
  • Improve PASEC evaluation process visibility and its results dissemination and use by field players and partners at a national level by setting up a dynamic communication system.
  • Advocate for an annual update of the school database to enable robust learning assessment.

To this end, PASEC recommends that the process of mobilizing national assessment system in countries should continue, and that evaluations should continue to be used as decision making tools to positively impact education policies and practices.

To achieve this, PASEC, with the support of its various partners, is focusing on capacity building in several areas:

  • international training sessions on the various stages of evaluation implementation
  • targeted and specific training (including on the development of survey instruments, data collection, sampling, data entry, data cleaning, data analysis, database use and reporting)
  • the use and monitoring of evaluation recommendations through the development of a roadmap consistent with sectoral policy documents.

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