Capacity Building Workshop for the Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) initiative

Capacity Building Workshop for the Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) initiative

Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) is a collaborative project of the Governments of Nepal, Cambodia and Mongolia with the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. The initiative is being undertaken by the Brookings Institution, and is designed to highlight the need for constructive use of educational assessments with a focus on 21st century skills, and to develop capacity in designing assessment on Transversal Learning Competencies (TVCs). OAA is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4– to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all children.

OAA is being coordinated through the offices of the Network on Education Quality Monitoring  in the Asia Pacific (NEQMAP), based at UNESCO Bangkok. Nepal's Education Review Office (ERO) is an active member of the Network, contributing research expertise to the Network and benefiting from its collaboration.                                               

Objectives of OAA

The main objective of OAA initiative is to support countries to improve the assessment, teaching, and learning of 21st century skills. The objective of OAA can be specified in the following points:

a)   To support regional and national stakeholders in measuring learning across transversal competencies, with consequent capacity for teaching these skills.

b)   To develop skills on identifying how these skills are included in the curriculum and how they are to be taught and assessed.

c)   To strengthen education systems’ capacity to integrate 21st century skills into their teaching and learning in order to better promote the goals of education systems in developing their students’ readiness for work and lifelong learning.

Arrangement for the implementation of the OAA initiative in Nepal

A country technical team has been formed representing the expertise from assessment, curriculum and pedagogy to work on the project.  Four schools from Kathmandu are selected for the implementation of the project. They are: Sisnery Secondary School, Lalitpur; Mahendra Gram Secondary school, Lalitpur; Changu Naryaan Secondary School, Bhaktapur; and Manohara Secondary School, Kathmandu.

Workshop in Nepal

Three collaborative capacity development workshops have been designed in each of the participating countries Cambodia, Mongolia and Nepali. The first major convening of the collaboration has  take place through a regional workshop Kathmandu, Nepal from May 28 to June 1, 2018. The workshop was hosted by Education Review Office within Nepal’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, and supported by Brookings Institution. The participants of the workshop were the technical teams from three collaborating countries Cambodia, Mongolia and Nepal. In addition, teachers from four pilot schools of Nepal, and experts from the Education Review Office as well Curriculum Development Centre in Nepal  also participated in the workshop. This workshop was the first in a series of three workshops for the project, each hosted by the participating countries in turn. This workshop was held at SAP Falcha, Babarmahal, Kathmandu.

The focus of the first workshop was the development of assessment frameworks for 21st century competencies that are informed by country-specific curriculum reviews. As part of the week’s activities, the participants  also visited schools in Nepal as an opportunity for the visiting international and national teams to understand the classroom contexts of Nepal. Understanding the classroom contexts is essential in developing formative assessment tools that can provide information for teachers and students about how students are progressing in their learning of 21st century competencies and the next steps for teaching and learning.

Participants of the workshop conducted in Nepal

S. No.

Name

Organization and country

1.        

Dr. Lekha Nath Poudel

Education Review Office, Nepal

2.        

Mr. Hemraj Pokhrel

Education Review Office, Nepal

3.        

Mr. Shyam pd. Acharya

Education Review Office, Nepal

4.        

Mr. Ram Chandra Dhakal

Education Review Office, Nepal

5.        

Mr. Lav Dev Bhatta

Education Review Office, Nepal

6.        

Ms. Anisha Yadav

Education Review Office, Nepal

7.        

Mr. Devi Ram Acharya

Education Review Office, Nepal

8.        

Mr. Purusotam Ghimire

Curriculum Development Center, Nepal

9.        

Mr. Sagar Mani Neupane

EGRPN, Nepal

10.    

Mr. Prabhat Budhathoki

Mahendragram Secondary School, Nepal

11.    

Ms. Rekha Thapa Magar

Mahendragram Secondary School, Nepal

12.    

Ms. Manita Shrestha

Mahendragram Secondary School, Nepal

13.    

Ms. Laxmi Pandey

Manohara Secondary School, Nepal

14.    

Ms. Safala KC

Manohara Secondary School, Nepal

15.    

Ms. Devaka Pokharel

Manohara Secondary School, Nepal

16.    

Mr. Ratna Bhakta Suwal

Changunarayan Secondary School, Nepal

17.    

Mr. Laxmi Prasad Suwal

Changunarayan Secondary School, Nepal

18.    

Ms. Januka Fuyal

Changunarayan Secondary School, Nepal

19.    

Mr. Laxmi Gopal Prajapati

Sisnery Secondary Schoo, Nepal

20.    

Mr. Krishna Gopal Prajapati

Sisnery Secondary School, Nepal

21.    

Ms. Rajani Maharjan

Sisnery Secondary School, Nepal

22

Dr. Esther Care

The Brookings Institution, USA

23

Dr. Alvin Vista

The Brookings Institution, USA

24

Dr. Helyn Kim

The Brookings Institution, USA

25

Mr. Ung Chinna

Education Quality Assurance Department, Cambodia

26

Mr. Sarin Sar

Education Quality Assurance Department, Cambodia

27

Mr. Hav  Khou

Education Quality Assurance Department, Cambodia

28

Mr. Taraksmey  San

Education Quality Assurance Department, Cambodia

29

Ms. Tungalagtuul Khaltar

Education Evaluation Center (EEC), Mongolia

30

Dr. Munkhjargal  Davaasuren

Independent Expert, Mongolia

31

Dr. Amarjargal  Adiyasuren

Mongolian National University of Education

32

Mr. Ung Chinna

Education Quality Assurance Department, Cambodia

33

Dr. Claire Scoular

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

34

Dr. Ray Philpot

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

For further enquiry and contact for the workshop: Deviram Acharya, Education Review Office, Sanothimi, Bhaktapur, Nepal; email: deviramac@outlook.com; Phone: 977-9851193542.