Public Hearings in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation

On November 1, 2018 public hearings organized by the Commission for Development of Science and Education and the Eurasian Association for Educational Assessment (EAOKO) were held in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. The topic of the hearings was «State and Public Quality Control of Educational Activities: Conflict or Cooperation». G. Motova, Deputy Director of the National Centre for Public Accreditation, spoke on the topic «Mechanisms of Independent Evaluation of Education Quality».

The aim of the public hearings was to discuss current approaches and possibilities in public quality control of educational activities; to make proposals for improving of statutory regulation and enhancing public participation in the procedures of independent evaluation. Issues of cooperation of government and public institutions in the process of independent assessment were discussed.

In the current legislation there are certain constraints for public involvement (including the professional community) in independent evaluation of education quality. For example, the possibility for the state to take into account the results of independent quality evaluation is not envisaged in Article 95.1. Article 95.2 provides for involving organizations that collect and analyze information on quality of educational process conditions, but their functions are constrained by the government contract.

Provisions of Article 96 do not consider the involvement of professional associations – they refer only to employers, associations of employers and their authorized organizations and, particularly, to evaluation of compliance of the level and quality of graduates’ training. In fact, concepts were replaced: what is meant is the procedure of graduates’ certification but not accreditation.

In fact, we are observing a tendency to replace peer review in education quality and public accreditation for external assessment by representatives of the Civic Chambers.

The following proposals were made:

• to clearly define concepts, goals and degree of public involvement (including academic society) in independent evaluation of education quality;
• to use results of independent evaluation not only for control but for recognition and promotion of the best practices;
• to recognize results of independent evaluation of quality in the procedures of state control and supervision.