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high-stake national examinations so that they truly capture the state of basic competencies and
critical thinking skills.
A culture of evidence based reforms and ‘deliverology’ for results is lacking in OIC countries.
Learning outcomes need to be measured regularly, disaggregated and sensitive to the most
vulnerable. Data also needs to be made freely accessible to citizens to improve accountability
through independent evaluation of performance outcomes. This evidence must drive
interventions for high performance on what works for quality and what does not. Public policy
and planning driven by evidence based culture to drive performance, innovations, inclusion, and
right level of financing for results at the school, district, sub-national and national levels will
make ‘learning’ everyone’s business.
Given the enormous diversity among countries in terms of culture, history and the stage of
economic development, reform plans must be country specific and it is unlikely that a single model
will apply to all OIC countries. Nonetheless, the OIC should revitalize regional organizations such
as ALECSO and ISESCO and leverage the existing institutional set up to develop a wider research
programs in partnerships with member country governments. But such collaboration will go a
long way in addressing shared challenges such as gender disparity and social inequalities in
education, low returns to investment in education and the engagement of the non-state sector.
The OIC should set up a Centre of Excellence to coordinate research and development in the field of
education among member countries. This will help strengthen cooperation among members to
facilitate dialogue and exchange of good practices. Initiatives such as this can help develop an
OIC-wide learning metric to track progress in student achievement as a group of countries.