Reasons
for establishing the Office for National Education Standards and Quality
Assessment
Similar
to the operation of other concerns, education provision needs
administrative and managerial principles for the entire cyclical
functioning. It has been well recognized that evaluation is indeed
an essential step for feedback information, which provides us
with the basis for assessing the extent of target achievement.
It also enables us to identify weaknesses or problems for which
remedial measures are needed so as to facilitate subsequent planning
and actions required to achieve the goals effectively and efficiently.
It
is hence crucial that the importance of evaluation be recognized,
particularly quality assessment by an external and neutral body.
Such mechanism will provide meaningful assessment. It also gives
all agencies responsible for education provision - from those at
the national level to the smallest - i.e. educational institutions
and classrooms, the incentives for self-evaluation so that the quality
of education will be continuously enhanced.
Why a public organization?
Quality
education is in fact a public service required of the state, which
will have to provide such education to all people. The state therefore
entrusts the responsibilities of offering education responsive
to the needs of direct beneficiaries, i.e. students and parents,
as well as those of indirect beneficiaries, i.e. enterprises,
the public and the society as a whole. For such provision, the
state necessarily has to assess how far it complies with the national
education policy, and how far it serves the needs of the customers
or different groups of beneficiaries.
An external quality assessment agency needs to be a public organization,
enjoying the status of a state body, which is neither a government
office nor a state enterprise, in order to achieve highest efficiency.
With complete autonomy and power in decision - making for its administrative,
managerial and financial affairs, it has the flexibility to carry out
the assigned tasks more efficiently than through the bureaucratic
line of command.
Besides,
not being under the obligation of reporting to the agencies in
charge of education, ONESQA enjoys complete neutrality and integrity,
since there is no outside pressure to distort the assessment,
resulting in a genuine check and balance. External quality assessment
is a public service for capacity-building to check how far the
quality of education required by learners, the society and the
state meets the desired standards and efficiency.
