Ministry of Education developed evaluation tools for CZK 1,200 million, which fail to improve the quality of education in the Czech Republic
PRESS RELEASE on Audit No. 16/13 – April 10, 2017
The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) performed an audit at the Ministry of Education, the Centre for Detection of Education Results (CERMAT), and the Czech School Inspectorate (CSI) and scrutinized funds used for the education system’s development in the period 2011–2016, namely the tools for the quality assessment of education at primary and secondary schools. Auditors aimed at the evaluation of results achieved by the fifth- and ninth-year pupils, a pilot project of harmonized entrance examinations for admission to schools providing secondary education diploma1, and the common part of the high-school exit exams. The evaluation tools should provide the information about the pupils’ achievements and about the education quality at individual schools and educational systems at primary and secondary levels, which costs about CZK 80,000 million every year. During the audited period, the Ministry spent nearly CZK 1,200 million on the development of the said evaluation tools.
Auditors revealed that the evaluation tools introduced by the Ministry of Education failed to improve the quality of education in the Czech Republic. The Ministry, individual schools as well as the parents miss any feedback on the education levels, the schools’ quality, and the quality of the educational system, particularly at primary schools, which would be fundamental for the desired effect of improving the pupils’ achievements and the quality of education.
From 2013, the evaluation tools should have also included annual national comparative tests for the fifth- and ninth-year pupils. The Ministry of Education, schools, and parents would have been informed about the pupils’ success at acquiring the expected knowledge. However, the Ministry failed to introduce the nationwide survey and only selected sample groups for the achievement surveys that would be repeated only once in four years. Until the end of the SAO’s auditing operation, no survey was carried out. As a result, there is a constant lack of comparable information about pupils’ achievements. In order to ensure the intended surveys, the CSI created an informational system that cost CZK 116 million, which would have make it possible to test pupils electronically.
In 2010, the Czech Republic introduced a common part of the high-school exit exams (that is called maturita in Czech), which can also be used to assess the quality of education and should have included mathematics in selected schools since 2014. However, mathematics as a compulsory subject of the high-school exit exam will be introduced as late as in the school year 2020/2021. The Ministry of Education also repeatedly transferred the responsibility to evaluate writing exams on the subject of Czech language and literature between the schools and the CERMAT, which negatively affected the results’ comparability and objectivity. Last but not least, universities generally do not take into account results of the common part of the high-school exit exams, which was one of the original reasons for their introduction.
Auditors also aimed at the funding system of primary and secondary schools, which is currently based on the numbers of pupils and does not take into account the quality of education provided by individual schools. Thus, the schools are not motivated to increase the provided education’s quality. The Ministry of Education has been planning to reform the financing structures, which should be effective from the school year 2018/2019. Key factor for the new funding structures would be numbers of classes taught at the given school, which however, does not relate to the quality of education either. By 2020, the Ministry should change the funding system in order to consider the quality of education provided by individual schools.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office
[1] Harmonized entrance examinations for admission to schools providing secondary education diploma were also planned for the school year 2016/2017.