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.
Using teacher appraisal to support and incentivise good teaching
This chapter looks at how the Republic North Macedonia evaluates teaching practice and supports teachers to improve through its teacher appraisal system. The country has made several attempts to create more robust methods for teacher selection and promotion, however efforts have not been sustained and the proposed merit-based career system has still not been implemented. Creating a more effective teacher appraisal system will help to address many of gaps in teacher policy. As a priority, North Macedonia should implement its existing proposals for a merit-based career structure and teacher standards. An essential complement will be greater investment in professional development, within and outside school, so that teachers can access learning opportunities to become expert teachers as they progress in their career.