In 1992, UNESCO and UNICEF organized the Joint Monitoring Learning Achievement (MLA) Project. The major objectives of the MLA Project are to (a) establish a mechanism for continuous monitoring of the quality of basic educational programs; (b) periodically undertake assessment of learning outcomes; (c) provide interventions for observed disparities between the level of learning outcomes (e.g., regional, gender, socioeconomic); (d) establish common levels of learning outcomes; and (e) develop methods and indicators for long-term monitoring in order to formulate policies to improve basic education. Broad-based capacity building programs are used to mobilize the national expertise to form a critical mass of core trainers and peripheral trainees through several national and sub-national workshops. The overriding aim has been to develop methodologies that are above all simple, flexible, feasible, and sustainable in the long term. The goal is to provide policymakers with the necessary analytical tools to raise the quality of education delivered.

The project first set up a model designating three essential domains of basic learning competencies that should be mastered: literacy, numeracy, and life skills. An additional domain--learning environments--was also added to assess the impact of such influences on learning as parents and teachers. The prototype questions developed by the experts served only as a basis for the countries to develop their own tests, adapted to their particular cultural environments. (This means that there is a core of questions common to all countries and then an additional set that vary by country. For example, Mali asked a question about the efficient use of wood in cooking and another on the importance of sending girls to school. Mauritius' tests paid much attention to plant life, public cleanliness, and the protection of property. China included several questions on protecting the environment, especially young trees and polluted rivers.)

A group of people in each country were identified and mobilized to select representative samples of children at selected grade levels, conduct the assessments, and then analyze the results. These national task forces received special training for this assessment and continue to function as an ongoing core of monitors of basic learning.

The first phase of the project included 5 initial countries: China, Jordan, Mali, Mauritius, and Morocco. (Chinapah's Handbook on Monitoring Learning Achievement, Towards Capacity Building (1997) provides a full discussion of the experiences and lessons from that pilot phase of the project.) Phase II included the following countries: Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Slovakia, Oman, Rodrigues Island/Mauritius, Zanzibar, Nigeria, Sudan, Kuwait, and Mozambique. Phase III included the following countries: South Africa, Madagascar, India, Republic of Yugoslavia, Haiti, Ecuador, Sao Tome & Principe, Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, Nepal, and Tanzania. As of 1997, 27 countries have been involved in the project.

This project, though differing from most of the projects in the International Literacy Explorer because of its implementation in numerous countries, was chosen for inclusion because of the monitoring and assessment model that it presents, which can be modified for any country.

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