Prague - First, you must decide what you want to achieve. Then, you must see that it is really done and control if it gives the desired results.
That is the summary of 17 suggestions made by the OECD's experts after analyzing the Czech education system. The team led by Paul Santiago produced a 160-page report.
The OECD is preparing similar analyses also for another European countries suffering from problems with their education systems.
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In the Czech Republic, pupils' performance has deteriorated in the last decade. The comparison of PISA tests from the years 2000 and 2009 shows clearly that the abilities and knowledge of Czech 15-year old pupils have decreased, especially in the fields of reading and science.
The OECD expert team believes that the key to reverse this trend is a new grading system. The current model is based on a decades old numerical 1-5 system that gives very little information, because each school can implement it in a different way. This means that two schools could rate the same performance with a different grade.
The experts suggest "national standards" that would describe excellent, good and sufficient performance in different fields and at different education levels.
The report also criticizes the project of centralized secondary school-leaving state exams prepared by the Czech Education Ministry.
The OECD team suggest that the performance of teachers, principals and schools should be periodically evaluated under a supervision of an external body, such as the Czech school inspection.
Experts should collect data on the Czech education system and analyze them in order to find ways of how to improve it, the report also suggested.
