External Quality Control: Inspectorate and Supervision
Education Quality Assurance systems have three main broad purposes:
- quality control;
- accountability and guidance;
- and improvement.
The International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) believes the broadest approach is to understand 'supervision services' as covering all those services whose main function is:
- (1) to inspect, control, evaluate;
- and/or (2) to advise, assist and support school heads and teachers.
This hence concerns the work of inspectors, supervisors, advisers, counselors, coordinators, etc. located outside the school, at local, regional or national levels. Common characteristics of all these officers are that:
- their explicit role is to control and/or support;
- they are located outside the school;
- and regular visits of schools are an essential part of their mandate.
For VVOB, 'external quality control' includes two major topics, namely:
- inspectorate and control or supervision of schools,
- and supervision of teacher training institutes (higher education).
