ACER, UNESCO join forces for international cooperation in education
Media release 21 Jul 2016 2 minute readFollowing years of cooperative work in global education monitoring, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has been admitted to official partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
21 July 2016: Following years of cooperative work in global education monitoring, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has been admitted to official partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, said ACER’s work was clearly relevant to the current programs and activities of UNESCO.
“Our partnership will formalise the valuable cooperation of UNESCO and ACER and enhance the impact of our joint activities in the service of international cooperation in education,” Ms Bokova said.
ACER Chief Executive, Professor Geoff Masters AO, said the formal partnership consolidated years of collaborative endeavour by the two organisations.
“ACER and UNESCO share many areas of common interest, including through collaboration with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the UNESCO Office in Bangkok,” Professor Masters said.
“ACER through the Centre for Global Education Monitoring and UNESCO through the UIS Global Alliance to Monitor Learning are working to produce common, coordinated and sustainable learning assessments across the world.”
ACER and UNESCO through the UIS have, for several years, been collaborating on a variety of initiatives, including the development of empirically supported learning assessments for reading and mathematics, and associated tools and methodologies, that countries can use to effectively and appropriately monitor learning outcomes to inform educational policy.
ACER and the UIS are also compiling a catalogue of learning assessments that provides standardised and comparable descriptive information on public examinations, and national and international assessments at primary and lower-secondary levels in countries across the world.
“The partnership formalises the commitment of ACER and UNESCO to international cooperation in research on learning assessment, and reflects our shared interest in promoting the ideal of quality learning for all,” Professor Masters said.
Find more about ACER’s Centre for Global Education Monitoring at www.acer.edu.au/gem
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Media enquiries: Steve Holden, 03 9277 5582 or 0419 340 058 communications@acer.edu.au