Effectiveness of Secondary Education in Iran: An External Evaluation of the Schools Connectivity to the Workplace The revolution in information and communications technologies and the rise of the global knowledge-based economy have had remarkable impacts on all aspects of the way we live and work. A profound transformation as a result of the rapid changing economy requires an ever-increasing demand for a well-educated and skilled workforce in all parts of the economy (McIntosh, 2008). The skills required for many conventional occupations are changing rapidly, and many skills are quickly becoming dated as new jobs, new technologies and new industries emerge. In this circumstances the skills of our young people are their passport to business success. Achieving to this depends on an effective education and training system and appropriately linked to the world of work and focused on the changing needs of employment (Azizi and Lasonen, 2006; Azizi and Lasonen, 2004; Richards, 1999). Therefore, being sure that the society’s educational and training system is on the right pathway to the indented aims and direction needs that its effectiveness to be evaluated both internally and externally. In Iran as in many other developing countries despite of many reforms which have been launched in education since 1960 in particular recent reforms aimed to improve the effectiveness of secondary education, the country's secondary education is confronting with deep rooted challenges and problems (Azizi, forthcoming). As an ongoing research, therefore, this paper aims to analyze the views and reflections of both school leavers and employers on the extent to which secondary education is effective and the degree to which recent reforms has been successful to link education to the workplace and maintain their connectivity.

A stratified sample of 376 school graduates both males and females and a random sample of 30 employers in the region of Kurdistan were selected for this study representing a range of school leavers in different fields and courses of secondary education and those available worksites in the region. Graduates were asked to complete a questionnaire that included 20 closed question regarding the importance and relevance of schools curriculum, instruction and practices to the labour market requirements and the sufficiency and capability of the learnt skills and qualifications. Also employers were asked to take part in semi-structured interviews focusing on their expectation and satisfaction of schools’ effectiveness in general and the employees’ capability in particular.

Although providing a market-oriented education was adopted as a strategic policy by the Ministry of Education in Iran due to increasing unemployment rate amongst school leavers in recent years, but as initial finding reveals from this study both graduates and employers are dissatisfied with the outcome implemented reforms. Also comparing the performance of graduates from TVE courses to graduates from other theoretical fields such as Humanities, Sciences and Mathematics in the workplace shows the first group has an acceptable records and relatively success in practice. This is while a very negative feature of secondary education is its strong focus on academically-based courses which are studied by around 70% of secondary school students.