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Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. In other words, the majority of the member
states where children have poor access to education remain outside the scrutiny as they don’t
participate in any of the major international assessments. However, our review of the available
evidence from these countries based on country-specific survey data reveals that the learning
crisis in the OIC countries is likely to be more severe as new evidence on South Asian and African
member states become available.
Most of the non-participating countries are income-poor and have been found to be challenged
by resource-strapped education systems. Schools have unfavorable teacher-student ratio and
classrooms are overcrowded. There is a shortage of trained teachers. At the same time, among
countries that participate in international assessments and allow independent scrutiny of their
education systems, student performance does not show a systematic correlation with resources.
Therefore, learning, instead of enrolment and school completion or mere improvement in PTR,
should be the primary goal of education in the OIC countries. While countries should meet the
target of 20% of the GDP allocated to education, this alone is not sufficient to deliver quality
education.
The multivariate analysis of the determinants of student achievement has highlighted a number
of important associations that can inform reform initiatives in the OIC countries. First, findings
show a “private school effect” – students educated in private schools scoring significantly higher
in PISA. Increasing participation of the private sector is already emphasized in national plan
documents such as the National Transformation Program 2020 of the Saudi Government 10. In
Egypt, there are about 6 thousand private schools, serving 1.6 million students. This represents
approximately 9% of total enrolled students. 11 However, the provision of affordable private
school is still very limited in member countries.
Second, the findings show a clear need for greater parental engagement. Some member states
already recognize this. To quote from Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 document: “Our goal by 2020
is for 80 percent of parents to be engaged in school activities and the learning process of their
children. We will launch the “Irtiqaa” program, which will measure how effectively schools are
engaging parents in their children’s education. We will establish parent-led boards in schools,
to open discussion forums and further engage with parents. Teachers will receive training to
raise their awareness of the importance of communicating with parents and equip them with
effective methods to do so successfully. We will also collaborate with private and non-profit
sectors to offer innovative educational programs and events that can improve this academic
partnership.”
Lastly, a small group of OIC member states show some signs of progress in terms of performance
in international assessments. These include Indonesia, Malaysia, Jordan, Turkey and
Kazakhstan. However, in most cases, the progress has not been sustained over time. After an
impressive performance in the early rounds of PISA, Jordan has been a steady fall in student test
scores. In case of Turkey, after a decade-long positive trend in PISA, there has been a decline
though it is largely owing to a fall in the share of top performers; the percentage of students
performing below proficiency levels performance of students has remained reasonably stable
since 2006. In case of Indonesia and Malaysia, there are signs of recovery in the 2015 round of
PISA. It remains to be seen whether this trend will be sustained in the coming years. The next
section discuss in details the cases of Jordan and Malaysia.
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