Assessment of Transversal Competencies: Current Tools in the Asian Region

UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education has been working on education quality under the name of ‘transversal competencies’ (TVC) since 2013. Many of these competencies have been included in national education policy and curricula of countries in the region, but now the importance accorded them is increasingly gaining attention. As policy makers increasingly require their systems to provide evidence of 21st century skills acquired by their learners, implementation challenges highlight the need for a stronger alignment between curricula, pedagogy and learning assessments.

UNESCO Bangkok’s Network on Education Quality Monitoring in the Asia Pacific (NEQMAP) undertook this regional study to examine components within countries’ learning assessments that show how these apply to and can measure transversal competencies. This report provides valuable information on how learning assessments are already capturing TVC and is useful for a broad range of education stakeholders, not only test developers, but also curriculum developers, teacher trainers and teachers. Particularly important is the need to align these skills and competencies across the entire education system.