EDUCATION QUALITY IN THE OIC MEMBER COUNTRIES

This section provides a broad overview of the OIC member states. The primary objective here is

to document (a) the current quality of education level in OIC and how has it changed over time;

(b) identify the main factors that determine the quality of education and how they differ

between OIC countries and over time and (c) identify policy efforts to increase quality of

education and the critical success factors.

In terms of statistical analysis, data is organized and presented both at the region level (OIC vs

other regions) as well as individual country level. The latter approach facilitates a within OIC

analysis. In all cases, the status of quality of education in the OIC countries (as a group as well as

individually) is compared with global level and trends. A wide range of international student

learning assessment data sets is used, wherever they cover OIC countries, to perform a global

analysis of educational achievement. Since internationally comparable data is available only for

a sub-sample of OIC member states, mostly upper-middle income countries, the comparison is

not adjusted to non-OIC countries by income level. The analysis is primarily descriptive (trends

analysis, based on secondary sources). Cases of "positive deviations" are highlighted wherever

appropriate. The discussion also highlights the experience of specific countries for which high

quality evidence and publicly accessible data on education quality is available.

The selection of measures of education quality as well as variables explaining it is motivated by

the conceptual framework explained in section 1. Accordingly, the discussion is organized

around four pillars of indicators: (a) access and participation; (b) education system output; (c)

financial and human resources; and (d) learning environments. For interpretation of major

national and regional trends in education indicators (as well as later policy recommendation

purposes), policy documents produced by sub-regional forums involving OIC countries such as

E-9 are also consulted.

For the Middle East and North Africa region, the policy documents

produced by the Arab Regional Agenda for Improving Education Quality (ARAIEQ) and the Arab

League’s Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) are consulted.

The State of Education Quality in the OIC Member Countries

2.1.1.

Level of Student Learning

Figure 2.1

presents country level TIMSS scores in math and science by per capita GDP. Given

that the small number of participating countries and relatively wealthy OIC countries are well-

represented in TIMSS, high-income OECD countries are retained for comparison purposes.

Students from Kazakhstan and Turkey perform around the OECD average despite their much

lower income relative to OECD countries. These two OIC countries also outrank other

participating wealthy OIC member states such as Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Turkey

also outperforms Qatar and UAE in the latest round of PISA assessment. However, the

performance of OIC countries in PISA is in general is less satisfactory when compared to OECD

countries. Mean math and science scores in the majority of OECD countries are above 500 points

while in case of OIC countries except Turkey, the scores are below 450 mark.

Forums such as Developing-8 are ignored as education is not one of the priority areas; see