NATIONAL BOARD FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION (NBTE) monitors and evaluates our school programme every three years.
Our ODFeL too is being monitored by a section in the same board.
The benefits of the NTSS include the following:-
i) Improves the performance of internship teacher trainees and lecturers.
ii)ensuring the delivery of quality education.
One of the weaknesses in using NTSS is it takes a lot of time to train teacher trainees and lecturers to perform accordingly.
- Quality assurance rubric for blended learning
provides a precise and consistent set of guidelines and requirements for assessing the effectiveness of blended learning. - It allows for a thorough and systematic evaluation of all aspects of blended learning, including course design, technology integration, and teacher assistance.
- It can be used to develop and improve blended learning courses and programs.
- It provides a framework for interaction and collaboration among stakeholders such as teachers, administrators, and instructional designers.
- It can be altered to fit the particular requirements and objectives of various schools and programs.
Weakness - The process of creating a quality assurance rubric can be time- and resource-consuming.
- It usefulness is based on both how well it is designed and how knowledgeable the users are.
- It might miss certain crucial elements of teaching and learning and may not adequately reflect the subtleties and complexities of blended learning.
- Making sure that the rubric is consistently used and that all evaluators reach the same findings can be challenging.
- If it is perceived as being unduly prescriptive or interfering with academic liberties, there may be opposition to its use.
We use various tools for quality assurance in our college
1.checking the trainers logbooks , registers
2. Preforming audits at random and cheques
3. Ensuring quality testing during exams.
We face various challenges
- Uncooperative trainees and trainers
- Budget constrains
Quality assurance tools used in Fiji’s education system include:
- Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks: Fiji uses curriculum and assessment frameworks to define learning objectives, standards, and guidelines for both primary and secondary education.
- Teacher Professional Development: Providing ongoing training and professional development opportunities to educators to ensure they are equipped with the latest teaching methods and knowledge.
- Quality Audits: Conducting periodic quality audits to assess and monitor the performance of schools, including infrastructure, resources, and educational outcomes.
- Student Assessment and Examinations: Regular standardized testing and examinations to evaluate students’ progress and identify areas for improvement.
- Parent and Community Involvement: Encouraging parents and communities to participate in school activities and provide feedback on the quality of education.
- Education Policies and Regulations: Implementing policies and regulations that set standards for various aspects of education, including curriculum, teacher qualifications, and school governance.
Challenges in using quality criteria to enhance the quality of education provision in Fiji can include:
- Resource Constraints: Limited financial and infrastructure resources can hinder efforts to improve the quality of education, especially in remote areas.
- Teacher Quality: Ensuring that all teachers meet high standards of quality can be a challenge, particularly in recruiting and retaining well-qualified educators.
- Inclusivity: Addressing the diverse needs of students, including those with disabilities and from marginalized backgrounds, can be challenging in a resource-constrained environment.
- Standardized Testing: Relying too heavily on standardized testing may lead to a narrow focus on exam preparation at the expense of a holistic education.
- Community Engagement: Ensuring effective and meaningful engagement with parents and communities can be difficult, as it requires building trust and cooperation.
- Curriculum Relevance: Adapting the curriculum to changing societal needs and global demands is a constant challenge.
- Data Collection and Analysis: Ensuring reliable and comprehensive data collection and analysis to inform quality improvement efforts can be resource-intensive.
Addressing these challenges and continuously improving the quality of education in Fiji requires a coordinated effort involving government agencies, educators, communities, and other stakeholders.
Most the Quality Assurance procedures are carried out by the Ministry as they pay school visit. i believe this is external quality assurance as it is assessed by an external body. They have their own rubric to assess us which includes the Admin, Facilities, Academic achievement, Officials and the physical environment.
The strengths of Quality assurance toolkit for open schools include:
- Providing guidance for developing and maintaining quality assurance systems in open schools.
- Offering theoretical perspectives on open schooling and quality assurance.
- Discussing quality criteria and their components, providing benchmarks for self-reviews.
- Presenting case studies from different countries to illustrate the application of quality criteria.
- Emphasizing the importance of home-grown quality assurance systems that consider international trends while taking into account local context.
- Providing practical tools for program and course development, materials development, and assessment.
The weaknesses of this toolkit may include:
- The absence of specific examples of how to address certain challenges in open schooling.
- Limited emphasis on the use of technology and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in open schooling.
- Lack of detailed guidance on how to address specific issues related to quality assurance in open schooling, such as addressing the needs of diverse clientele and learners with special circumstances.
- The toolkit does not provide a comprehensive framework for addressing the changing curriculum and unexpected changes in educational programs.
- The absence of specific indicators for measuring performance and improvement in open schooling.
- Limited focus on cost-effective and efficient resource management in open schooling.
The Quality Assurance tool used in TEVET in Zambia is the inspection instrument. Every institution that offers TEVET is inspected to ensure that it meets the minimum standards in terms of infrastructure for teaching and learning, staff qualifications and Management structures to mention but a few. This is an outward looking model and as already observed it has some challenges where the institutions do not own quality because they think they just need to satisfy the external quality assurers. The Authority has embarked on a move to institutionalize quality assurance by developing guidelines through a wider stakeholder consultative approach. It is envisaged that internal quality assurance will enhance quality of provision.
Tools used in implementing quality assurance
- checklists;
- documentation;
- Assessments testing
Challenges
Learning requires teachers to integrate technology into their instruction. This can be challenging for teachers who are not comfortable using technology.
Time management for most teaches
Correct curriculum implementation is a challenge which is reflected when students write national examinations
well articulated. Thank you for sharing.
one quality assurance method used is where the curriculum development department visits institutions to check if what the institutions are teaching is in line with the curriculum developed
We use a quality assurance tool used to collect information on various standards such as Management and administration of the institution,training delivery and infrastructure,tools and equipment.The challenge of our data collection tool is that it does not differentiate the core and non core elements making some low perforning institutions be rated highly.Secondly it is a bit subjective as it depends on the one scoring to decide what score to give from one to five and no guidance as to why one should score for example and not 4.
- the tools used include the minimum training standard, and Training Quality Assurance
inspection instruments. - the challenges faced are that some of the institutions do not recognise the need for quality assurance in training. the quality provision is viewed to be external, driven by the government.
In my country, Zambia this is the case, but we are institutionalising Quality Assurance to make it both external and internal.