– regardless of their wealth, gender, where they live, or whether they have a disability – complete primary school and achieve the basics in reading, writing and mathematics.
“What is important is adopting a stepping-stones approach to assessing progress for the most deprived. Where do we need to get to in the next five years, and in the five years after that? If we don’t work on our assessments, we will lose sight of the most disadvantaged,” said Prof Rose.
As for the need for innovation in the education sector, she asserted that the quality of teaching could only be improved by incorporating the best practices from around the world.
However, she warned that it remains critically important that these ‘best practices’ are not simply transposed without understanding the learners’ needs, their local context and cultures.
In his talk, IED Director Dr Sarfaroz Niyozov highlighted that education around the world was witnessing a reinvigoration of indigenous knowledge and models, a welcome change in countries with rich historical and cultural traditions of teaching and learning such as Pakistan.
However, he said that it was equally important that one should not fall into the trap of romanticising the indigenous and assess “local models for their quality, equity and inclusivity”.
As teachers remain central to the quality of student learning, he added, the quality of the education acquired by the teachers was deeply connected to what they would be imparting to their students.
“Teachers’ openness to and capacity for learning from multiple sources and challenging perspectives is the key to survival of teaching as a respectable profession and teachers as esteemed professionals.”
The first day of the conference saw several concurrent sessions covering 24 presentations and two symposia and, over the three-day period, over 100 workshops, plenary sessions and presentations would be conducted.