"Accountability" er det centrale begreb i
uddannelsesreformer verden rundt
Accountability betyder oversat til dansk ansvar,
ansvarlighed, ansvarsfølelse, ansvarsbevidshed, selve det at man står til
ansvar og lever op til ens ansvar.
Men det engelske begreb bruges også i
betydningen regnskabspligt, kontrolsystemer og oplysningspligt.
(Se evt eksempler på begge anvendelser på
dansk:
UNESCO har lige udgivet en rapport, der
har titlen “Accountability in education: Meeting
our commitments”
“In 2017, the second
report in the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report series continues its
assessment of progress towards the Sustainable
Development Goal on education (SDG4) and its 10 targets, as well as
other related education targets in the SDG agenda.
It also investigates
accountability in education, analyzing how all relevant stakeholders can
provide education more effectively, efficiently and equitably. The report
examines different accountability mechanisms that are used to hold governments,
schools, teachers, parents, the international community, and the private sector
accountable for inclusive, equitable and quality education.
By analyzing which
policies make accountability work or fail, and which external factors impact on
their success, the 2017/8 GEM Report concludes with concrete recommendations
that will help build stronger education systems.”
Link til summary
rapporten (53 sider)
Homepage for Education
Monitoring Report
Links til hele
rapporten “The Full Report” ( godt 500 sider)
Den samlede report er meget interessantere end
“Summary Report”, fordi der gennemføres argumentationer og der gives mange
konkrete eksempler fra rundt i verden.
I det hele taget viser den en
afbalanceret holdning til “accountability”:
Uddannelse fungerer ikke uden
samarbejde mellem mange parter, og i særdeleshed lærerne. Og kontrolsystemer
uden tillid og samarbejde fungerer ikke.
 |
How all actors in education are currently held to account. Page 8 in Summary Report
|
( I parentes bemærket giver rapporten indtryk
af ikke at være præget af den amerikanske tradition for stive
accountability-systems hvor rigid kontrol afløser tillid til lærere. Det er
måske fordi USA ikke længere er med i UNESCO)
“Recommendations
Clear accountability
mechanisms should be in place to meet global common commitments to
inclusive, equitable and high-quality
education and lifelong learning for all.
This report has shown
the whole array of approaches, ranging from countries where the concept of
accountability is unknown, and violations of the right to education go unchallenged,
to countries where accountability has become an end in itself instead of a means to improve education.
Accountability in
education starts with governments, which bear the primary duty to ensure the
right to education. Every country in the world has ratified at least one
international treaty illustrating its commitment to the right to education.
However, in only 55% of countries is the right to education justiciable,
meaning that there are laws allowing citizens to legally challenge failures in
the education system.
Civil society
organizations and the international community should lobby for the right to
education, including for making the right justiciable in national legal
frameworks. Of course, laws are only powerful if they are implemented.
Effective accountability requires governments
to build stronger systems to enforce the laws. This report therefore
lays out the following recommendations to help governments – but also other
actors with a stake in education – to design and implement robust
accountability systems.
DESIGNING A ROBUST
ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM
Governments need to
create space for meaningful and representative engagement to build trust and a
shared understanding of respective responsibilities with all education actors –
all government tiers and departments, legislative and judicial authorities,
autonomous institutions, schools, teachers, parents, students, civil society,
teachers’ unions, the private sector and international organizations.
Steps in that
direction would include:
Providing formal space
for meaningful dialogue among multiple stakeholders, especially those sitting
outside government.
Strengthening the role
of legislatures’ education committees by introducing regular review processes
and building the capacity of their members.
Publishing an annual
education monitoring report that presents actions taken and the results to
which they have contributed, across all levels of education, for the benefit of
the public.
Governments should
develop credible education sector plans and transparent budgets with clear
lines of responsibility and truly independent auditing mechanisms.
Fundamentally,
government actors cannot be held accountable if there is no clarity on what
they are accountable for.
Budget document
transparency can help clarify where and when funding is released, providing
information necessary for critical review, especially in the legislature.
Governments should develop credible and efficient regulations and monitoring
mechanisms and adhere to follow-up actions and sanctions when standards are not
met. These should cover providers of both public and private education and
ancillary services.
Processes, such as
registration and accreditation or bidding and contracting, should be clear and
transparent.
But regulations should
also address equity and quality aspects of education. Governments should design
school and teacher accountability mechanisms that are supportive and formative,
and avoid punitive mechanisms, especially the types based on narrow performance
measures.
Using student test
scores to sanction schools or evaluate teachers can promote an unhealthy
competition-based environment, narrow the curriculum, encourage teaching to the
test, demotivate teachers and disadvantage weaker students, all of which
undermine overall education quality and student learning.
...
Capacity:
Actors should be
equipped with the skills and training needed to fulfill their responsibilities.
Governments should ensure strong institutions are in place, including those
serving policing, judicial and auditing functions, with the capacity to help
deter, detect and investigate corruption in education.
Governments should
treat teachers as professionals. They should help build their professionalism by
investing in the necessary initial and in-service education programmes and
providing them with autonomy.
In turn, teachers’
unions aiming to strengthen professionalism through codes of ethics should
raise members’ awareness and build the skills of those entrusted with following
through on such internal accountability mechanisms.” (min fremhævning)
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Dette blogindlæg supplerer afsnittet ”Fjerde uddybning: kampen om forståelse af reformer”
i mit kapitel Hedegaard, E. (2017): "Uddannelsespolitik og globalisering - uddannelsesreformer i en usikker tidsalder"
i bogen P. Ø Andersen & Tomas Ellegaard : "Klassisk og moderne pædagogisk teori". København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
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