ABSTRACT
The appraisal or measurement of the outcomes of public policies varies considerably in accordance with the kinds of services or regulatory supervision that characterize various policy areas. For health policy, the efficacy of national policy instruments can be assessed and compared through the utilization of indicators like morbidity and mortality rates. While the results of the national examinations can be compared only indirectly, outcomes of some national schooling efforts can be compared directly from the results of multinational programs to test student knowledge and proficiency levels internationally. Complementary studies have shown how student performances have varied across national regions, be they language-based ones, as in the case of Switzerland, or political-cum-educational system based ones, as between the Old Lander and the New Lander in Germany. The Swiss introduced national testing in the context of military training by introducing recruit exams in 1875 for twenty year old males beginning military service.
