11. QUALITY ASSURANCE

Introduction

The Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, in accordance with its Education Strategy and Action Plan for 2018 – 2025, is making continuing efforts for improving the quality of education through curriculum modernisation, continuing training of teachers, introduction of contemporary teaching and learning methods, development of clear standards for monitoring and evaluation of all entities involved in the education process and through facilitation of personal and professional career development of every individual participating in the education process.

One of the established goals of the Education Strategy is the improvement and adjustment of quality assurance (and quality control) tools which ensure learner centred education and best learner’s interest.

Three basic mechanisms for supervision and evaluation of the quality of the education system are currently implemented in the country. External evaluation of the quality of education provided in educational institutions is carried out by the State Education Inspection (SEI), which cooperates directly in the discharge of its functions with the BDE (Bureau for Development of Education) in regard to the control over the quality of the delivery of the national curriculum.

SEI is responsible for supervision over the enforcement of the legislation and other regulations and acts governing the work of education institutions as well as quality control of the education and upbringing process at all educational levels and lifelong learning (LLL) universities.

The technical supervision and the qualitative aspects of the work of the school are responsibility of the Bureau for Development of Education (BDE). BDE is responsible for monitoring, expert review, research, promotion and development of upbringing and educational activities in the field of pre-school education, primary education, secondary general and secondary art education, secondary vocational and postsecondary education, education of children with special educational needs, adult education, educational activities of student dormitories, as well as for the education of Macedonian citizens’ children abroad in relation of acquiring the language and culture.

The third mechanism for evaluation of the quality through external assessment is the responsibility of the State Examination Centre (SEC). SEC is mainly responsible for organising different types of assessments of students (such as the external testing and state Matura exams) including international assessments (such as PISA and TIMSS). In addition, it provides training, assessment and certification of principals (candidates for principals) of educational institutions.

The education system in North Macedonia has a rather short tradition of quality assurance and evaluation. The existing approaches in place are typically one of inspection and have fostered a culture of control primarily concerned with investigating adherence to regulatory requirements. The evaluation framework, which inspectors and education institutions have to apply, there is need to support the education institutions to use evaluation results to lead towards improvements. Both external and self-evaluation focus largely on ensuring compliance with the framework and the culture of reflection and improvement to follow later on.

However, in recent years the Government has taken several steps to make quality assurance more meaningful. In pre-school education the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is in the process of establishing a new quality measurement tool based on the Measuring Early Learning and Quality Outcomes (MELQO) instrument. In higher education, an Agency for quality in higher education has been introduced in 2019, but no evaluation has been so far conducted. The system of quality assurance of adult education is demonstrating an upward development trend in development of procedures and strengthening the internal capacity.

References and links

http://www.dic.edu.mk/

http://dpi.mon.gov.mk/

http://bro.gov.mk/

http://mon.gov.mk/index.php/dokumenti/strateshki-plan

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