OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education: North Macedonia
How can assessment and evaluation policies work together more effectively to improve student outcomes in primary and secondary schools? The country reports in this series analyse major issues facing evaluation and assessment policy to identify improvements that can be made to enhance the quality, equity and efficiency of school education.
The Republic of North Macedonia has made remarkable progress in expanding access to education and strengthening institutional capacity. Yet, the majority of young Macedonians leave school without mastering the basic competencies for life and work and students’ background continues to influence performance. This review, developed in cooperation with UNICEF, provides North Macedonia with recommendations to help strengthen its evaluation and assessment system, by moving towards a system where assessment provides students with helpful feedback to improve learning. It will be of interest to North Macedonia, as well as other countries looking to make more effective use of their evaluation and assessment system to improve quality and equity, and result in better outcomes for all students.
Executive summary
Since the last OECD review of the Republic of North Macedonia (hereafter referred to as “North Macedonia”) in 2003, more children now participate in education and remain in school for longer. Despite these improvements, low learning outcomes indicate that many young adults in North Macedonia leave education without mastering the basic competencies for life and work. Inequities remain large and children from minority communities are still less likely to access quality education and to successfully progress through the system.