ACER UK and FCDO collaborate to collect quality data on student proficiency

Despite global efforts, a significant number of countries lack sufficiently valid, reliable and comparable data to report against SDG 4.1.1. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Independent Technical Advisory Panel has highlighted the lack of reliable data on learning outcomes in a substantial number of GPE partner countries. In 2024, UNESCO data showed that 47% of countries did not have valid assessment data for reporting, and an additional 20% had insufficient data to track trends in progress towards achieving the indicator goals. Many of these countries struggle to effectively use the many tools available to them.

The importance of reliable data

The primary aim of collecting valid, reliable, and comparable data, beyond reporting on SDG 4, is to inform policy decisions, teaching and learning. However, even when data is available, there are challenges in optimising its use. ACER UK and the FCDO are addressing this urgent issue to ensure that national and local governments, civil society, and global development partners can monitor the impact of their investments on improving learning and schools, and to enable teachers to make better use of the data available.

FCDO’s commitment to educational initiatives

The FCDO has committed significant funding to supporting initiatives for the collection of quality assessment data. ACER UK identified substantial synergy between the FCDO’s aims, ACER’s global leadership in assessment, and the local knowledge and strategic insights of FCDO’s education advisers in more than 20 countries. Consequently, ACER UK proposed that FCDO commission their technical expertise in the form of an accountable grant to support initiatives aimed at improving the quality and use of education assessment data in low income countries (LICs) and lower middle income countries (LMICs). Improving the access to quality data will enable all children and young people to meet minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. Under an agreement with the FCDO, ACER UK began this program of work in January 2024.

Progress and future steps

The technical assistance provided by ACER UK is determined by the findings of the scoping activities it conducts. Under the terms of the FCDO grant, ACER UK can offer a suite of support services, such as:

• supporting United Nations Institute of Statistics reporting standard for SDG 4.1.1
• providing policy and strategic advisory services on assessment practice
• building capacity for sustainable assessment systems
• designing and implementing impact evaluations
• knowledge brokering to support the generation of quality evidence.

To date, activities have been conducted in 4 countries: Ghana, Rwanda, Malawi, and Somalia and significant progress has been made.

Given the demand for support in the collection and use of assessment data, and the development partners’ need for additional technical assistance, the original 2023–24 grant was extended by another 2 years in November 2024. This extension allows ACER UK to build on its achievements in the countries it has already worked in and enables support to be implemented in other countries.

The FCDO will continue to address its priorities and use ACER UK’s technical assistance to increase the impact of its funding to other development partners. The critical need for reliable educational data cannot be overstated.  

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This material has been funded by UK International Development from the UK Government; however, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies.

ACER UK’s support is funded by the FCDO’s Data for Foundational Learning Programme (D4FL). Countries wishing to discuss ways in which learning outcomes data might be improved and better used to inform policy and practice and make international comparisons are invited to contact Colin Watson at ACER UK colin.watson@acer.org.