Learning Assessment in Kyrgyzstan

From October 3, 2008 until November 27, I am posted as Learning Assessment Consultant for the Second Education Project (SEP) of Kyrgyz' Ministry of Education and Science funded by a grant from ADB. The SEP basically aims to modernize curricula, learning assessment and textbook development for Grades 1-11. This is my second posting here, I have been posted last 2007 to work for Grades 1-4, this year, we are working for Grades 5-9. The remaining years of the project are devoted for Grades 10 and 11.

As Learning Assessment Consultant, I am responsible in developing a capacity building program for teachers on formative and summative evaluation. As an International Consultant, I am working with two national consultants, Olga Aksenova and Galina Sahorava, both are teachers in Bishkek City.

It is rather a very challenging to work for this project because, I always need a translator/interpreter even when I meet with my national consultants. I prepare learning and training materials in English, then they have to be translated into Russian and then to Kyrgyz language. Meetings and lectures take more time because of the translation and interpretation.

In this project, we translated assessment as "Ochenibanye" and evaluation as "Ochenka" . At first, both terms are translated interchangeably as Ochenka or Ochenibanye. However, to make it clearer, we have to decide the acceptable Russian translation.

Learning Assessment in Kyrgyzstan is fully influenced by the former Soviet Union, since Kyrgyzstan has been part of the former USSR until it became independent in 1991.

At the Ministry of Education and Science, there is the National Testing Unit (NTU) that oversees testing activities of school education here. However, most of its activities are focused on standardization of entrance tests and examinations for higher education or university. The NTU staff are well-trained and I was surprised to know that they have been doing item-banking for the past 5 years. Their tests for higher education uses an MCQ and they score this through a scanning machine. The NTU revealed that the technology was acquired through the assistance of DANIDA in 1996. However, it has not been updated yet very recently.