Can We Comment on Quality: How the M&E Activities Ensuring Quality in Education in the South Asia Sub-Continent

This paper analyses the existing literatures about the Quality Assurance process of primary education in three different countries within the south Asia subcontinent namely, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It argues that the definition of Quality education is still ambiguous in among the systems. However, this article categories the aspects of quality education from existing literatures and examines the quality assurance systems in the mentioned three countries. Having done so, it shows that the quality assurance systems in all three countries focus differently in various aspects of quality education among which the physical aspects are predominant.


Introduction
Timeline for achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE) is now at its final phase. Although in several subsequent policy dialogues and documents it has been said that access to quality education is a right of the children, till now it is often judged unfortunate that the quantitative elements of education have become the main focus of attention (UNESCO, 2005). For instance, many countries attempted to show their success regarding theEFAagenda by providing attractive figures of access.
However, a number of international studies consideredthe issues of quality, although very superficially. Some international agencies (e.g. UNESCO, UNICEF etc) set a number of indicators of educational qualities.Similarly, Jomtien and Dakar Declaration also defined the quality of education. Countries are called for setting provision of regular monitoring ensuring the quality of education. Hence, EFA signing countries established and strengthened the capacity of monitoring and evaluation within their systems. In fact, monitoring and evaluation now-a-days are at the core of almost all educational quality improvement policies and strategies in most of the countries (UNESCO, 2002). Yet, parents and policymakers are increasingly concerned about the quality of education and the knowledge and skills obtained by the children through schooling.
Traditionally, in many countries monitoring through inspection is practiced to exercise control over the schools and to offer feedback for improvement. Nevertheless, since quality is less of a priority from the beginning, quality of education is loosely conceptualized and there are controversies about its definition. Moreover, there are numerous pitfalls among the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems that are aimed to identify shortcomings of the educational interventions and provide support to ensure quality in different countries. In addition, knowledge about different monitoring, evaluation and quality assurance systems is only fragmentary at best (Lamanauskas, 2012).
In this situation, it is important to synthesis the information available about different M&E and quality assurance (QA) systems in countries under UPE programme. How the countries can comment on the education they are providing and how quality could be ensured through various processesare interesting issues to conceptualize. This knowledge could be used to strengthen the M&E systems which in turn, can help to ensure the qualityof education.
Thus this article aimed to analyze the M&E processes of 3 different countries of theSouth Asian sub-continent namely, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. It also draws upon the available evidence of the effectiveness of the M&E processes in ensuring the quality of primary education in therespective countries.

Methodology
A rangeof literature was reviewed in order to conceptualize the meaning of 'quality'widely used in primary education. Through desk research a number of studies and relevantinformation on government websites were analysed. Specifically, the annual M&E reports produced by the central authority of the above mentioned countries were analyzed to infer the elements which are monitored and arguably influence the 'quality' of education. Data were analyzed thematically.

Quality in Primary Education
The Dakar framework for Action and Millennium Development Goals emphasized on ensuring free and compulsory primary education of good quality by 2015 (UNESCO, 2005, Pigozzi, 2000. In different documents and reports, it has been claimed that the achievement of Universal Primary Education (UPE) fundamentally dependson the quality of education available.Quality education could help to ensure higher retention retain schools. How well pupils are taught and how much they learn can have a crucial impact on how long they stay in school and how regularly they attend classes (UNESCO 2005). Furthermore, parents are also concerned about the cost of schooling and the time they are spending in schools and whether it is worth for what the children are taught.
However, in spite all of these concerns, thedefinition of 'quality' in education is still ambiguous and the notion is still not fully developed. Different authors identified different indicators of quality education and there is significant lack of consensus on what quality actually entails (Alexander, 2008). Notwithstanding, Jomtien and Dakar conference, UNESCO, UNICEF and some other organizations identified some elements of quality education. Analyzing concepts from these discussionsfour broad areas related to quality could be found.
Firstly, the World Declaration on Education in the 1990s set four indicators for quality, namely student's desirable characteristics, process of education, contents and finally the system. Health and motivation were mentioned as desirable characteristics of pupils.On the other hand,competent teachers using proper and active pedagogies were identified as a preferred process of education. Similarly, relevant curricula signified desirable content, and good governance and equitable resources were mentioned as indicators of an effective system. Secondly, UNESCO identified four 'pillars' of education and thus conceptualized the notion of quality (UNESCO, 2005). There are pupils will be able to learn themselves as a result of education and this was labeled as 'learning to know'; education will enable students to apply practically what they learnt in real life and it is denominated as 'learning to do'; as an effect of the quality of education achieved, life will be free of discrimination and equal opportunity will be established -this process is called 'learning to live together'; andfinally, 'learning to be' emphasizes the skills needed for the individuals to develop their full potential.
UNICEF defined quality based on the Dakar declaration and on the philosophy of children rights (Unicef, 2000). Five dimensions of quality were identifiedwhich emphasized on the learners, environment, content, process and outcomes.
In addition, different philosophies of education acknowledge quality in their own ways. For example, humanist tradition believe that human nature is essentially good and individual behavior is autonomous (Elias and Merriam, 1995). This tradition also acknowledges that all people are born equal and subsequent inequality is the result of the environment around. Thus this concept noted that, in quality education:  Standardized, prescribed and externally defined or controlled curricula is projected;  The role of assessment is to give learners information about their progress as well as feedback;  Teachers play the role of a facilitator rather than instructor; and  Education is a social practice rather than an individual intervention.
While the pioneer of the behaviorist tradition believe, behavior could be manipulated through specific stimulation (SKYINNER, 1968). According to this tradition, Tyler (1949) suggested:  Learners are not intrinsically motivated or ableto construct meaning for themselves;  Human behavior can be predicted and controlled through reward and punishment;  Cognition is based on the shaping of behavior;  Deductive and didactic pedagogies, such as graded tasks, rote learning and memorization, are helpful; Thus quality in education in this tradition was defined(UNESCO, 2005)using the following factors.
 Standardized, externally defined and controlled curricula, based on prescribed objectives and defined independently of the learner, are endorsed.
 Assessment is seen as an objective measurement of learned behavior against preset assessment criteria.
 Tests and examinations are considered as central features of learning and the main means of planning and delivering rewards and punishments.
 The teacher directs learning, as the expert who controls the stimuli and responses.
 Incremental learning tasks that reinforce desired associations in the mind of the learner are favored.
Considering the above, it is clear that in order to define'quality education', two sociopsychological theories took significant oppositions. While the humanist theory wanted assessment to inform the learners about their progress, behaviorists said that it should measure learned behavior and examination needs to be the central focus of education. In addition, since the humanist notion considered the teacher as a facilitator, the behaviorists presentedthe teacher as a director of education. The differences in both school of thoughts raise important fundamental questions such aswhat is the purpose of education and how do we want to shape our future. Should we help to create 'soldiers' for a nation to perform duties uniformly with predictable patterns or 'critical thinkers' who are capable to appreciating the need for a structure of a nation and yet ready to think 'out of the box' when necessary.In absence of a consensus about the definition of 'quality', developing a strategy to measure quality poses a difficult challenge.
However, after analyzing the above definitions of the four broad criteria,In summary, it could be said that to measure the quality of education, the following are elements need to be addressed.

Learners'characteristics and achievements:
According to Jomtien declaration whether learners are healthy and motivated needs to be measured first in order to comment on the quality of education provided. In addition, learners' cognitive achievements, intellectual and physical skills and their ethics could be considered as essential.
Teaching-learning process: Whether the teacher's methods of teaching work well or not is a fundamental concern of quality in education (UNESCO, 2005). A proper teaching learning process must engage students and motivate them to participate in the learning process. Teacher's characteristics namely, whether the teacher is the provider of knowledge or a facilitator of learning isalso an indicator of a quality teaching-learning process. In this element assessment needs to be discussed with the same amount of importance. The role and process of assessment need to be determined as quality assessment system is a prerequisite for quality education.
Although different theories defined teachers' role and quality assessment differently but there must be a consensus about these issuesin any given context for developing a quality assurance process.

Content:
Curriculum is the blueprint of an educational plan (Tyler, 1949). It determines what to teach and how to teach. Thus quality of education is at the core of this concept. Furthermore, learning materialse.g. textbooks also influence the quality of education. Almost all theories discussed above emphasized on this criterion as an indicator of quality education. Theories suggest that the curriculum must be standardized, extremely defined and controlled.
System: Good governance is highlighted as important for achieving quality education. Similarly, equity is also considered as another prerequisite of quality education in literature.Equity has been one of the most commonly referred terms in any reports regarding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In theory equity enables females and males of all races and ethnic backgrounds to develop skills needed to be proactive, empowered citizen (Opheim, 2004). Ensuring equity in classroom is one of the concerns of quality education. Apart from the teaching learning processes, physical facilities e.g. class size, supply of safe drinking water and sanitation) are also crucial factors to consider for quality education.
At a glance, these criteria could be shown as below. Mechanisms to monitorthe quality of education have already been set up in almost every country (Kayani et al.). However, to what extent, the system can draw upon the evidence quality education is questionable. A quality assurance or monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system needs to address all the elements of quality in education that have already been described above.

Key indicator Specific indicator
In this section, how the Monitoring and Evaluation systems in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are measuring those indicators will be discussed. The indicators that are centrally monitored will be analyzed for each country and how those match with the quality indicators described above will be critically discussed. While doing so, firstly, a comparative discussion is given for three different countries,which will be followed by descriptions of the M&E systems of the respective countries'element.

A comparative discussion of the elements monitored in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan
Analysis of the elements monitored by different counties shows that among the three countries, India monitors more elements (30%) related to learner characteristics than other two countries, followed by Bangladesh (23%) and lastly, by Pakistan (22%). At a first sight of this analysis, it seems that a good range of quality indicators are focused on teaching and learning, however, a closer look reveals that the focus is merely on the physical classroom environment (i.e. student teacher ratio), teachers' professional qualification etc. No indicator has found that deal with classroom pedagogy.
Similarly, very little amount of attention was given to learners' motivation, health, ethical issues and school management. However, in India, students' cognitive assessment is extensively done through public examinations. Nevertheless, the quality of those assessments is not reflected in the monitoring system.

Bangladesh
The

Key indicators monitored by DISE, India
Learner Characterstics Teaching-Learning Process Content System By analyzing this checklist it was revealed that unlike DISE, India, DPE in Bangladesh monitors a few elements related to content (4%), for example, the use of lesson plans and additional materials etc. However, the quality of the lesson plans and the materials is not monitored by the checklist. This analysis also showed that only 23% of the elements focus on learners' characteristics, while the administrative issues which are considered as system related elements,are heavily focused upon.This amounts upto 39% of all elements monitored. Teaching learning processes are monitored by the rest of the 33% of the elements. In addition to this, there are Divisional, Sub-Divisional Education officers and Learning Coordinators who basically supervise schools and teaching of teachers. However, for several political and bureaucratic issues, they have hardly any contribution in quality assurance (Ali, 1998

Conclusion
The definition of quality is evasive and it is difficult tocome to an agreed formal definition for the concept within the field of education (Ankomah et al., 2005). Although,a number of studies have been done by different organizations and scholars on 'quality' yet, one person's idea of quality, often conflicts with another. However, this paper reviewed a wide range of literature and came up with four broad criteria to measure quality in education namely-learners' characteristics, process, content and system. The broad criteria were divided into relevant subcriteria and then drawing upon the national reports on quality education of three different countries of the South Asian subcontinent, an analysis was conducted. Reports used in this article were obtained from the websites of the respective central government agencies of the above mentioned countries. For instance, data from the District Information System for Education (DISE) for India, Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) for Bangladesh, and the Academy of Educational Planning and Management (AEPAM) and National Educational Management Information System (NEMIS) for Pakistan were used.
It was apparent that different countries have given different amount of M&E emphasis on different elements of 'quality' in education. However, there is a common pattern within them.
All three countries focus mostly on the system related elements of quality education, which includes girl's enrolment, administrative issues etc. followed by teaching learning processes and learners' characteristics. Very little data related to content was found in the national annual reports of the three countriesexcept Bangladesh (only 4%).
Although, it seems that there is a good amount of focus on the teaching learning processes, which is an important indicator of quality education, nevertheless, classroom pedagogy was under-emphasised. The same argument is applicable for the content element.
The findings from this desk research study suggest revisiting the monitoring indicators for all three countries in the primary sector is necessary to ensure quality education. What is being taught and how those are taught must be monitored by the central monitoring and evaluation authority, so that the time and money spent by the students and their parents for schooling is worth it.