Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's Director for Education and Skills, has praised the Education and Training Situation Room built by Saudi Arabia's Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC), saying most of the education systems he deals with have nothing comparable and that other nations can learn from it.

Schleicher, who also advises the OECD Secretary-General on education policy, was speaking after meeting ETEC board chairman Dr. Khalid bin Abdullah AlSabti, who briefed him on how the commission manages assessment data and on the dashboards and analysis the Situation Room produces.

In his view, ETEC stands out because it does not stop at collecting data but puts it to work to improve teaching and learning, whereas elsewhere data is often scattered, siloed or left unused. On earlier visits, he said, the commission was building the “eyes and ears” of the system, the tools to track performance and learning outcomes; now it is developing the “brain” that interprets results and their causes, using technologies including artificial intelligence.

He welcomed the practice of giving schools and education directorates detailed figures on where they stand and where they should be, saying the gap motivates schools, helps directorates target resources and train teachers, and lets parents play a bigger part in their children's learning.

“I am deeply amazed. I can see how ETEC is advancing the frontiers of information management, not only in Saudi Arabia, but also globally,” Schleicher said, adding that most countries still lack this kind of integrated technical infrastructure.

The visit forms part of efforts to deepen international cooperation on assessment, quality assurance and education policy.