During the Vietnam War, the Americans used body counts, that is casualty figures for the enemy as an indicator of the success of their war against the North Vietnamese. Numbers are a convenient way to indicate success or failure of almost anything.

The problem is when those people who use such simple indicators begin to believe in that such numbers actually reflect reality. It is made worse when such indicators like body counts, is not used by your enemy as the indicator of a successful war. Ho Chi Minh once said of the French whom he had fought before the Americans, “You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win.” Clearly Ho Chi Minh had a better idea of what is real. Body counts were never his measure of success.

Education today is facing its own Vietnam. Policy makers, school administrators and teachers have become obsessed with key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of educational programs. Instead of body counts, we have test scores as our KPIs. The figures from such KPIs have a life of their own. Once adopted, it becomes an article of faith in terms of its accuracy. It becomes hard to let go of such measures because they become dogma. It becomes hard to let go also because the faithful cannot see any other alternative. Right or wrong it is held on to with the fervent of the converted.

So test scores, drop out rates and international surveys becomes part of the liturgy of education today. Never mind if intelligence cannot be reduced to a test score. Never mind too if many pass through these KPIs undetected. What is important is that we think have a measure. Sadly as the Americans found out with the Tet Offensive, body counts don’t count. Will we have to experience our own Tet Offensive in education before we realise this?