This research attracts attention to the issues of policy assessment, government accountability, and monitoring and evaluation.
For the purposes of this study, Kazakhstan – a young independent state which emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union – was taken as a sample country, and the general grand-scale public sphere was narrowed to the education sector.
On the example of one particular education reform – transitioning to the 12-year schooling – the research demonstrates how monitoring and evaluation can help in assessing a policy reform, in involving all the groups of stakeholders and in achieving policy goals more effectively.
As a part of this study, the first nation-wide project on monitoring and evaluation of education reforms was launched and implemented in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
This research reveals the evidence for applying monitoring and evaluation as a powerful public management tool and demonstrates why monitoring and evaluation should become an essential part of the education policy development and implementation processes in Kazakhstan