- CIEAS

Background and rationale

Through the Sector Education and Training Strategy (SSEF), the Government of the Republic has launched several reforms to improve the quality of education, including a quality-assurance framework.

This framework aims mainly to promote and embed a culture of assessing pupil learning and teachers’ pedagogical practices in order to strengthen management of the education system.

For the Ministry of National Education and New Citizenship, this framework is embodied in the creation of the Independent Unit for the Assessment of Learning Outcomes (CIEAS) under Ministerial Order No. MINEPS-INC/CABMIN/0036/2016 of 27 February 2016.

Overview

Reporting to the Minister’s Office, CIEAS is an independent specialised body of the Ministry that conducts standardised assessments and measures pupil learning in primary and secondary cycles to provide information on their performance to sector administration, parents, and other stakeholders.

It is responsible for designing, planning, and administering standardised assessments of pupil learning and teachers’ pedagogical practices at local and national levels, and for disseminating the results.

CIEAS also serves as the interface with regional and international organisations regarding standardised assessments of pupil performance in the DRC.

Objective

CIEAS aims to provide indicators that contribute to improving the quality of pupil learning through regular monitoring of performance and remedial measures in curricula, teaching methods, and teacher training.

Missions

Identify the system’s data and knowledge needs to support evidence-based management of the education system;
Define assessment constructs and test specifications;
Design standardised tests for assessing learning outcomes to measure pupils’ knowledge and/or skills;
Manage test administration operationally and collect contextual data to explore factors explaining pupil performance;
Conduct quantitative and qualitative statistical analysis of standardised learning-assessment data;
Disseminate learning-assessment results to sector stakeholders;
Broadly disseminate assessment results, findings, and recommendations to inform education policy and raise awareness of education quality in the education community;
Provide assessment, management, and decision-support tools to education system actors;
Work with international partners on standardised international assessments (PASEC, SABER, PISA, etc.).

Organisational structure

Currently, in addition to coordination and administrative and financial services, CIEAS is organised into the following seven departments:

Statistics department;
School programmes department;
French and Congolese languages didactics department;
Mathematics didactics department;
IT and data management department;
Logistics department;
External contributors department.

Support bodies

To function effectively, CIEAS relies on other Ministry structures to carry out its missions.

Ministerial Order No. MINEPST/CABMIN-ETAT/0116/2020 of 12 February 2020 established the following support bodies for CIEAS:

1

Consultative committee

Made up of heads of Ministry structures linked to CIEAS missions, it provides views on general orientations and recommendations needed to advance CIEAS work to improve the quality of school learning and teachers’ pedagogical practices.

2

Technical committee

Made up of focal points designated by heads of Ministry structures linked to CIEAS missions, it supports CIEAS in designing and implementing activities related to learning assessments.

3

Provincial committees

They support CIEAS activities, including learning assessments: preparation, implementation, dialogue with field actors and communities, and dissemination of results.

Achievements 2019–2025

Development of the learning-assessment framework;
Development of national learning standards for three areas (French, national languages, and mathematics);
Development of assessment tools;
Design of the data-entry system;
Pilot learning assessment PAQUE;
Empirical validation of items;
Supervision of the PAQUE baseline survey;
First national CIEAS assessment;
Establishment of provincial CIEAS committees;
Dissemination of PAQUE baseline results;
Participation in regional and international experience-sharing;
Capacity building for CIEAS experts;
Development of a socio-emotional skills assessment tool;
Supervision of the PAAF baseline survey;
Technical support to Inspection for the design of a classroom observation tool;
Pilot learning assessment for PEQIP.

Outlook 2025–2026

Pilot learning assessment PAAF;
Dissemination of PAAF baseline survey results;
PEQIP baseline survey;
Dissemination of PEQIP baseline results;
Second national CIEAS assessment;
Dissemination of national CIEAS assessment results;
Technical support to EFFICACE.