UNESCO workshop on policy simulation and costing plan in Mongolia

As a follow-up to the Education Sector Medium-Term Development Plan (ESMTDP), UNESCO Section of Education Policy organized a series of capacity building workshops on simulation and costing in Mongolia.

The objective of the workshop was to develop the capacity of Ministry of Education Culture Science and Sports (MECSS) to develop and update an education simulation model for effective policy simulation to support the decision-making process through developing capacity of the key MECSS staff on:

• The key principles, concepts and techniques of education simulation modeling,
• Translating the policy targets and priorities into simulation,
• Adapting EPSSim (Education Policy and Strategy Simulation model) into the Mongolian context,
• Using the simulation results for policy decision making.

The workshop was organized through a series of 5 weekly webinars. Each week was dedicated to the crucial steps of education simulation modeling as shown and described below. Each webinar consisted of a presentation by UNESCO followed by a Q & A session, and a hands-on exercise using EPSSim. At the end of each webinar, the participants which included Ministry staff from different departments: Policy and Planning, Finance and Economy, Information Technology and Statistics, and Vocational Education and Training received an assignment for them to complete before the following webinar.

The first week, the introductory session focused on understanding the key principles and techniques of education simulation modeling. Participants were asked to identify priority program indicators and targets. The following two weeks, the sessions went into more detail on simulating and costing of the education system and priority programs. Participants were familiarized with the important elements and data needed in order to build the simulation model. The fourth week, participants were introduced to simulating available resources and funding gap. The fifth and last week participants reviewed the simulation results with the plan to consult with key educational stakeholders and integrate their comments and inputs before the finalization of model. In the coming weeks, Mongolia will finalize the EPSSIM model with UNESCO’s continued technical assistance.