Monitoring the educational achievement of primary school children: an international collaboration

Recent development in measuring educational outcomes has led to increased collaboration between international organisations and better understanding of education systems. From SACMEQ (Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality) a full data archive of the achievement of Grade 6 pupils in fourteen developing countries (including Seychelles) has been prepared. At the same time, from the Seychelles Child Development Study (SCDS) a longitudinal information system has been built on a cohort of Seychellois children from early childhood through their primary education. In this paper, the two sets of data are used to increase understanding of the achievement of pupils in primary schools in Seychelles. The cross-national comparisons of the achievement of pupils in two key learning areas, reading and mathematics, have been discussed to highlight the relative performance of Grade 6 (P6) in the SACMEQ school systems. In addition, the literacy and numeracy levels of Grade 6 pupils have been analysed to bring into sharper focus the Seychelles primary school system. By linking educational outcome at the end of primary schooling and child development outcomes during the primary education cycle, it has been possible to confirm some of the findings from the SACMEQ study. Moreover factors with potential to influence the performance of pupils and affect the learning process in the primary education system in Seychelles have been tentatively explored.