In 1991 the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and a number of Ministries of Education in Southern and Eastern Africa began to work together in order to address training and research needs in Education. The focus for this work was on establishing long-term strategies for building the capacity of educational planners to monitor and evaluate the quality of their basic education systems. The SACMEQ educational policy research projects were designed to provide detailed information that could be used to guide planning decisions aimed at improving the quality of education in primary school systems. During 1995-1998 seven Ministries of Education participated in the SACMEQ I Project. The SACMEQ II Project commenced in 1998 and the surveys of schools, involving 14 Ministries of Education, took place between 2000 and 2004. The SACMEQ III Project was conducted in between 2005 and 2010 and involved 15 member countries: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania (Mainland), Tanzania, (Zanzibar), Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The actual data collection took place in 2007. A unique feature of the SACMEQ III research project was the inclusion of the HIV and AIDS knowledge test (HAKT) for Grade 6 learners and their teachers. The SACMEQ III project also represents a major increase in the scale and complexity of SACMEQ’s research and training programmes.
