The document discusses educational indicators and their use in planning education systems. It defines indicators as tools that provide information on the state of an education system. Indicators should measure progress towards objectives, identify problems, and meet policy concerns. A good indicator is relevant, able to summarize information, precise and comparable, and reliable. The document provides examples of how indicators have been used in education systems in Uganda, Bangladesh, and Kenya to measure outputs and assess various stages of development programs. It also discusses the limitations of tools like the log frame model in evaluation.

1. Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
1

2. Indicators for Educational
Planning
…..all you wanted to know
about indicators but were
afraid to ask

3. Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
3

4. Why indicators?
• More complex education systems
• Greater need for information-based
decision making
• Transparency in use of funds
• Targets harder to attain: more diagnosis
needed
• Monitoring and evaluation more a part of
the accountability requirement
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
4

5. How is the information used?
• Political rather than rational imperatives
rule (EFA, FTI, Catalytic Funds etc)
• Need for more accessible information
• Need to assess the functioning of the
education system in all facets
• Assessment must be easy to interpret
• Description of the system must be
understandable
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
5

6. What do indicators attempt to
do?
• Show the evolution of the education
system
• Underscore the trends
• Highlight problems
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
6

7. Defining an indicator
• A tool which gives a sense of the state of the
education system and reports on that state to
the whole community
• Its characteristics are:
- its relevance
- its ability to summarise information
- its relationship to other indicators
- its precision and comparability
- its reliability
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
7

8. The capacity of an indicator
•
•
•
•
Measures how close one is to an objective
Identifies problematic situations
Meets policy concerns
Answers questions regarding policy
choices
• Compares the state of play to a standard
or reference value
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
8

9. How should indicators work?
• Indicators should work like a control panel
or like the warning lights on a car
• They indicate that there is a problem or
that an objective has been fulfilled or is on
the way to fulfilment
• A specialist then addresses the problem
• An indicator is not a target or an objective
• It only illustrates progress towards a target
• It is a signpost not a destination
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
9

10. The hierarchy of evaluation
• Goal
• Purpose
• Objectives
• Indicators (OVIs)
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
10

11. An example from Uganda
Goal: to increase the efficiency and effectiveness
of secondary education
Purpose: To improve the quality of teaching and
learning of English, maths and science
Outputs: a) TRCs established and functioning
b) In-service teacher education
upgrades knowledge and skills
c) Provision of materials
d) Systems for sustainability in place
e) Gender biases addressed in TRCs
and in-service teacher education
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
11

12. What kind of indicators could we
construct to measure these
outputs?
• Which are PROCESS issues?
• Which are PRODUCT/OUTCOME
issues?
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
12

13. An example from Bangladesh
See the paper from PEDP II –
• Are you satisfied with the categories of
Outcome, System and Process Indicators – all of
which come under the (ADB) heading of Key
Performance Indicators ?
• Do these indicators satisfy our criteria of
relevance, ability to summarise information,
relating well to other indicators, precision and
comparability, reliability?
• How does the approach compare with that of
Kenya ?
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
13

14. Per Dalin and his ‘Development
Chain’
• The need to develop indicators for
The Pilot Phase
The Implementation Stage
The Early Institutionalisation
Stage
The Institutionalisation Stage
The Dissemination Stage
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
14

15. A final word on the Log Frame
• A mixed audience of believers and non-believers
• The Log Frame apparently offers a technology
for evaluation through its structure
• Its limitations are – the underlying theory of
causation (the output is purely the result of the
input), its human capital theoretical basis, its
inflexibility in terms of unexpected change, its
over-simplification of purpose
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
15

16. THANKS
Sajjad Awan PhD Scholar TE
Planning
16