This text is part of the special Francophonie booklet
Comparing the similarities and disparities between the secondary school programs of 21 French-speaking African countries is the mandate given to two researchers from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). Their work, which began last February, will then be used to develop an international exam that will assess the knowledge of different adolescents at the end of their course.
The goal will not be to standardize education across states. “The idea is to enrich the abilities of all students. Some systems, for many reasons, can underperform. But without really having data, it is difficult to set up an action plan to determine where to improve,” summarizes Patrick Charland, professor in the Department of Didactics at UQAM. With his colleague Stéphane Cyr, from the Department of Mathematics at UQAM, he is co-holder of the UNESCO Chair in curriculum development.
The project is being carried out in collaboration with the Conference of Ministers of Education of the States and Governments of La Francophonie (CONFEMEN). It will identify the common skills of students from each country in four subjects: French, mathematics, science of life and earth, and the physical sciences.
The notions common in all the countries will then be used to develop an examination of the Program for the Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC). There is already a test of this type in elementary school, explains Mr. Charland. “We want to add one at the end of secondary school to get an idea of where the countries are in terms of the achievements they have developed in students,” he adds.
The researchers will analyze the different programs of the CONFEMEN Member States. They will thus establish the skills common to all these education systems which could be the subject of questions in PASEC. “Obviously, we would not want to question students on concepts that would not have been seen in their own educational system,” summarizes Mr. Charland about the future exam.
Differences between countries
Teachers have already observed disparities between school curricula. “From one country to another, the vision of what a skill is is a little different in the way of organizing it in study programs”, summarizes Mr. Charland.
Thus, some countries have integrated digital technologies and engineering into their science curriculum, while others have not. Some states also have a broader definition of jurisdiction. Some of them will present the content in a more general way, such as “solving problems in physics”, while others will specify, for example, “use Newton’s first law to solve a physics exercise”.
“We see that the very definition of certain national skills is much broader and transversal to the notions, while others are more pointed and specific, and closer to the notion itself. We are already seeing big differences,” summarizes Mr. Charland.
Improving the quality of education
The challenge will be to submit notions common to all. “If countries do not have such broad visions, we will have to go in a slightly more specific way to propose elements to be tested among students in this secondary school exam”, advances the professor.
Currently, only 40% of sub-Saharan African states have participated in a large-scale cross-national assessment, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. In view of the preparation of the future examination, it will therefore be necessary for the researchers to present questions “which should not harm anyone”. “It’s really a social issue, the development of the international exam that will ensure that it is aligned with the systems of just about everyone,” notes Mr. Charland.
The primary purpose of this test will be to assess what students are able to do at the end of their secondary program, which ends at the age of 15. “It allows states to have an idea of the performance of their own students,” explains Mr. Charland. And after that, in the light of these results, the countries will be able, in an individual way, to adapt their educational system and their programs of study”, he adds.
He and his colleague will submit their report next spring. It will contain not only recommendations on the notions to be incorporated into PASEC, but also observations on the disparity of certain programs. “These will potentially be recommendations for better alignment with trends or with certain international agendas,” he concludes.