On 15 March, 2017, IID attended a seminar on international education at the University of Veracruz, which was organised by MIA (MediciónIndependiente de Aprendizajes) team. The CEO of IID, Syeed Ahamed, represented Bangladesh at the seminar. This seminar was a part of the fifth annual PAL Network meeting taking place from 13 to 16 March in Xalapa, Veracruz (Mexico). The purpose of the seminar was to discuss about the common problems that many countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America face on the educational field and to analyse the role of citizen participation in the evaluation and resolution of these problems.
The seminar was organised into three different worktables:
- What are the three main problems in education that the country has in terms of coverage, equity and educational quality?
- What are the uses and impact of the information produced by the citizen-led assessment?
- What is the level of involvement of citizens in the citizen-led assessment in the country?
The panel members for PAL Network Asia were Syeed Ahamed from Bangladesh, Ranajit from Pakistan and Rukmini Banerji from India. The participants shared about existing education policy of their respective countries with Veracruz university students and gave an idea about South Asian education system at the seminar. Syeed Ahamed focused on three major problems in education in Bangladesh: enrolment is high but learning outcomes remain same; teacher student ratio is high; and indirect expenditure is a major challenge in attaining education.