What Can We Learn from Pre-Primary Quality Assurance Systems ? Evidence from theArab Republic of Egypt

Quality assurance systems have been implemented or are under development in a number of low- andmiddle-income countries in an effort to observe the quality of education and deploy targeted measures to improvequality. This paper shares lessons learned on the potential ability of quality assurance systems to observe quality andinform action, drawing on data from a pre-primary quality assurance system in the Arab Republic of Egypt. A nationallyrepresentative study of kindergarten classrooms was conducted, using a detailed diagnostic research tooladministered by independent enumerators from a data collection firm. A subsample of these kindergartenclassrooms was randomly assigned to also be observed through a short quality assurance system tool, half of them byindependent enumerators, and the other half by the existing cadre of government kindergarten supervisors. The qualityassurance system tool was developed for scale and financial sustainability; thus, it could be administered in roughlyone-third of the time of the diagnostic tool, at one-third of the cost. Overall, the results illustrate that at thenational level, the quality assurance system tool can identify important areas for improvement, and thus informbroad policy actions. Further, the results are consistent whether an independent data collection firm or a governmentkindergarten supervisor acted as enumerator, suggesting that quality assurance system data collection efforts can beembedded within ministries of education and implemented in a regular and sustainable manner. At the school and teacherlevel, however, there were several areas where the quality assurance system data were inconsistent with the diagnosticdata. This underscores how quality assurance systems are best used as a formative system, a starting point forquality enhancement, and not as a summative system that directly targets, punishes, or rewards specific schools.