The World Bank (WB) said that many of the Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) proposed plans to evaluate and accredit Saudi schools are consistent with international practices and are rooted in the educational research "OECD Report" of 2009, and "Maxwell" of 2019. In a report prepared by its team in cooperation with the National Centre for School Evaluation and Excellence "Tamayouz", affiliated with ETEC, during 2021-June 2022, the WB said that it provides a comprehensive review of the Kingdom's plans and developments pertaining to the evaluation and accreditation of schools, The report added that various plans and documents related to the Kingdom's approach to evaluating and accrediting schools, including general regulatory frameworks, procedural guides, standards, and tools, were reviewed, and that the WB team met with focus groups of stakeholders, including school assessment and accreditation specialists, principals, and parents. The report, a summarized version of which is published on the WB website, indicated that ETEC is the body responsible for evaluating and accrediting schools and training institutions in the public, private and international sectors in the Kingdom. It added that the commission's mandate fits well with the Saudi Vision 2030 and the Humanitarian Capacity Development Program, which aims to raise quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the education system, as well as support human development, the national economy and sustainable development. The report said that ETEC has developed a comprehensive national program to evaluate public schools and accredit private schools in the Kingdom systematically and consistently. The report said the ETEC in addition defines development goals to make substantial improvements in the quality of education and constantly improve the effectiveness of schools. It added that the commission works in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education to contribute to the constant improvement of and support schools in implementing evaluation and accreditation procedures. It also helps schools to benefit from the results of evaluation and accreditation, and to set priorities for the further development of the education system in the Kingdom. The report stated that school evaluation and accreditation helps the education system in the country achieve great value when a strategic approach is adopted, as applied practices have proved that school evaluation is an effective tool for building high-quality school systems and education that meets the needs of development and of the labour market. It added that school evaluation can lead to continuous improvement of education and enhance school performance. If carefully planned, school evaluation can also help build the capacity of the educational system and contribute to human capital development, economic growth, and increased productivity. The report highlighted that the school evaluation and accreditation program, which was developed by the ETEC about students, consists of two main stages: self-evaluation and external evaluation. Self-evaluation includes a set of internal processes and procedures carried out by public, private and international schools to evaluate their performance and verify their effectiveness and efficiency. While external evaluation includes a set of processes and procedures carried out by a specialized educational team from outside the school that reviews and evaluates all aspects of performance and measures the quality of the outputs of the school educational system. The report also noted that the digital platform developed by ETEC to evaluate and accredit schools acts as a powerful and wide-ranging tool, and includes a comprehensive information system for managing the evaluation processes; it is used to collect important data on school performance, which contributes to guiding policy decisions and setting strategic planning priorities. The report said that the availability of the comprehensive frameworks, approaches, processes and tools developed by ETEC, which cover all schools and grade levels, seriously contributes to the improvement of educational performance and quality in the Kingdom. It said, the commission continues to develop this solid foundation and improve procedures to enhance the capacity of the human capital in the Kingdom. — SPA
