The government has approved the rules for the operation of the GIS, which monitors the quality of education

The Federal Information System for Assessment of the Quality of Education (FIS OKO), currently operating as a departmental one, will receive the status of a state information system (GIS) from September 1, 2024. According to the authorities, this will allow Rosobrnadzor to use unified approaches to organizing and monitoring the quality of education in the Russian Federation – this is the implementation of a model of public administration and decision-making based on data, including on the financing of programs, experts believe.

The government adopted a resolution giving FIS OKO the status of a state information system from September 1, 2024. The document contains the rules for its formation and maintenance. Let us note that at present this system is departmental, increasing its level is provided for by amendments to Art. 97 and 98 of the Federal Law “On Education”, signed by President Vladimir Putin in August 2023. The new status of FIS will allow Rosobrnadzor to use unified approaches to organizing and conducting procedures for assessing the quality of education, analyzing their results and preparing recommendations for improving it. The creation of the information system is aimed at achieving the national goal, according to which by 2030 Russia should enter the top ten leading countries in the world in terms of the quality of general education.

The explanatory note to the amendments noted that FIS OKO provided the ability to integrate data on various assessment procedures, including regional ones, into a single database. Information is linked to educational organizations, which allows for comprehensive monitoring of institutions. It is possible to carry out multi-level control: at the federal, regional, municipal levels and at the level of an individual educational organization. At the same time, assessment activities are widespread, which required a new status of the information system.

The GIS operator will be an organization subordinate to Rosobrnadzor; the service itself, regional executive bodies, local governments and educational institutions will have access to the system. The formation of an increasing number of GIS at the federal level is now a general trend for various industries, and the current solution can be considered in line with the approach to data-based management, believes Ayrat Satdykov, deputy director of the Scientific and Educational Center for Educational Development at the Higher School of State University of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. The information system will collect information on the results of activities to assess the quality of education (national and international studies of the quality of education, all-Russian testing, and others), he notes. “This will allow Rosobrnadzor to conduct interregional comparative studies, create ratings and develop, based on research, methodological recommendations for constituent entities of the Russian Federation and municipalities regarding school education,” says the expert.

According to the leading expert of the Institute of Education of the National Research University Higher School of Economics Sergei Zair-Bek, collecting and systematizing data on the quality of education provides ample opportunities for working with them, taking into account the fact that the data storage period in GIS is 11 years. This is also important for assessing adopted and implemented policy measures in the field of school education, determining policy vectors, including the allocation of targeted funds at different levels of the budget system and beyond. “Essentially, this is a single vertical for collecting data in organizations and monitoring the veracity of this data from the lowest to the highest level,” he says. An important task in this case is to ensure distributed access to control this system and analyze data not only by government agencies, but also by experts, notes Mr. Zair-Bek.

Venera Petrova