10-14 June 2019 an International Symposium “30 Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall” organized by Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) in the frame of “Glocal education in practical terms: teaching, research and citizenship” international meeting took place at Pomorie, Bulgaria. It was also part of XVII BCES Conference 2019. The symposium has become a platform for fundamental debates on educational reforms which were conducted in Eastern and Central Europe and Eurasia in general in the past 30 years. Participants from over 30 former socialistic states were presenting analysis of educational reforms that took place in their countries.
The Center for International Cooperation in Education Development, CICED, organized the section « Russian Federation as an international donor in the field of education ». Within the section an overview of Russian educational reforms was made. The emphasis was made on elementary and secondary education: implementation of national education quality assessment system, introduction of the universal state exam, joining the Bologna process, participation in international comparative research (PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS, etc).
Also, Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) program was presented. Its main goal is to support developing countries in their efforts to improve the quality of education, educational outcomes evaluation and development of the institutional, expert and analytical potential.
Also a Student Achievement Monitoring (SAM) tool, developed under READ program was presented, which is an instrument for complex evaluation of students competencies in different disciplines. Over the past 10 years the sample base of SAM surpassed 30 000 pupils and the tool is now widely regarded both in Russia and abroad. Nowadays, SAM is the key instrument for IRSA (International Research of Students Achievements).
The participants has shown great interest in READ program projects, results of testing and research that were received using the developed tools, as well as the opportunities for cooperation in the development and localization of education quality assessment tools.
