GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR POLICY DEVELOPMENT ON QUALITY ASSURANCE IN SCHOOL EDUCATION: EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE FOR UKRAINIAN SUCCESS

Abstract

In present-day conditions, the quality of education is becoming the most important characteristic that determines the competitiveness of educational institutions and national education systems. The tasks of quality assurance and control are central to the educational reforms of many countries, including Ukraine. The problem of measuring and evaluating learning outcomes is becoming one of the most important in pedagogical theory and practice, as its solution allows to determine the effectiveness and ways to improve the content, methods and organization of learning, management system. Objective, theoretically substantiated measurements and evaluation of learning outcomes can give teachers and heads of educational institutions information about the pedagogical process, educational achievements of each student, identify the impact of various factors on the course of learning and its results. The issue of quality assurance continues to be relevant for Ukraine in the context of the reform of the New Ukrainian School and attempts to create a system of education evaluations, which should focus on four key positions: promoting the quality of primary, basic secondary and complete secondary education; accumulation of objective information about the educational process and learning outcomes of students of general secondary education; support of the educational process in general secondary education institutions (what and how is assessed – that is why attention is paid to the extent of organizing the educational process); supporting teachers, increasing trust in them. The experience of EU countries where similar educational assessment systems have operated successfully can be useful for Ukrainian policy-makers and researchers in the field of education.