Abstract: | Jhpiego, an affiliate of the Johns Hopkins University, is an international non
governmental organization supporting ministries of health and education of Ethiopia in
capacity building programs. The objective of the study was to initiate standards based
educational quality management and recognition (SBEM-R) in higher institutes.
Between October 15 and November 25, Jhpiego conducted onsite orientation workshops
on standards-based educational management and recognition (SBEM-R) at three public
universities and facilitated formation of SBEM-R teams. The teams assessed the status of
medical, nursing and midwifery education using the assessment tool in the seven
respective schools under the universities. The tool has 62 educational standards in five
areas, namely, classroom and practical instruction, clinical instruction and practice,
assessment approaches, school infrastructure and teaching materials and educational
management.
The assessment findings revealed low achievement across all areas in the seven schools
with a total average of 23.9%. Achievements by schools ranged from 17.9 % to 30.6 %.
When computed by area, school infrastructure and teaching materials had the lowest
score (11.4 %) followed by assessment approaches (13.3 %). The situation was almost
similar across medical, nursing and midwifery schools. These findings lay the ground for
the subsequent small and incremental quality improvement. The use of SBEM-R will help
educators and students to actively participate and institutionalize educational quality
improvement, as the tools are easy to use, and have both” what to do” and “how to do”
components. |