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Consultancy services of an international institution to design and carry out a nation-wide study on the profiles of children with low learning levels

UNICEF Uzbekistan has been supporting the Ministry of Public Education in their efforts to improve the quality of education in Uzbekistan. This study provided information on the factors that influence the learning levels of children in primary school and supported the capacity building of national institutions in evidence-based policy making in Uzbekistan. The study was based on a national assessment of a representative sample of 4th-grade children, which consisted of skills testing (with a focus on reading, mathematics, and science, including also transversal skills) and student and teacher background questionnaires. The assessment was built on the expertise and good practice examples from the Lithuanian National Examination Centre. The study concluded which personal background factors (family, social, geographical) and school-related factors have a positive or negative impact on the learning levels of children. Based on these results and a wider literature review, the team provided recommendations to the Ministry for future policy actions and national assessments.

The assignment was implemented through the following stages: 

  1. Building consensus among all stakeholders in Uzbekistan regarding the content and scope of the assessment.
  2. Designing and developing the assessment instruments.
  3. Drafting the administrative protocols and procedures for the assessment.
  4. Training a local team to carry out and mark the assessments.
  5. Monitoring of data collection and preparing data for analysis.
  6. Analysis of the data and development of policy recommendations.