1947 Meeting in Paris of the Committee on Educational Statistics, the creation of which was recommended by the UNESCO Preparatory Commission 1950 Establishment of a service of statistics in UNESCO and constitution of an expert committee for the standardization of school statistics 1952-1962 Annual publication of Basic Facts and Figures 1955-1972 Publication of the five volumes of the World Survey of Education 1958 The General Conference of UNESCO adopts the Recommendation concerning the International Standardization of Educational Statistics 1963 Publication of the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1971 Computerization of the UNESCO Statistical Data Bank 1975 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) adopted by The International Conference on Education (Geneva) 1978 Revised Recommendation concerning the International standardization of educational statistics, UNESCO, Paris 1987 OECD, Conference on Educational Indicators, Washington 1991 First publication of the biennial World Education Report 1992 International Conference on Long-term Planning for Large-scale Collection of International Educational Statistics, UNESCO, Paris 1993 The General Conference of UNESCO requests the revision of ISCED 1996 Subregional Training Workshop on Education Statistics and Indicators for Women Statisticians, Accra, Ghana 1997 Meeting of Experts on Education Indicators and the International Classification of Education, ISCED, Paris

PROVIDING A MORE EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR RESEARCHERS AND DECISION-MAKERS The collection and updating of reliable and relevant statistical data is essential for a country if it is to formulate, implement and evaluate educational development strategies, policies and plans. As of its earliest days, UNESCO recognized the importance of statistics. In the 1960s, the newly acquired independence of many territories, left without any statistical services, and the development of planning, especially educational planning, prompted the Organization to strengthen its co-operation with Member States to assist them in organizing and improving the collection of statistical data on education, science, technology and communication. UNESCO assembles, stores and processes the data at the international level and ensures that they are comparable. The collection and updating of reliable and relevant statistical data is essential for a country if it is to formulate, implement and evaluate educational development strategies, policies and plans. As of its earliest days, UNESCO recognized the importance of statistics. In the 1960s, the newly acquired independence of many territories, left without any statistical services, and the development of planning, especially educational planning, prompted the Organization to strengthen its co-operation with Member States to assist them in organizing and improving the collection of statistical data on education, science, technology and communication. UNESCO assembles, stores and processes the data at the international level and ensures that they are comparable. One of UNESCO's missions is to compile and analyse world education statistics, just as the United Nations does for population and ILO for labour. Under Article VIII of the Constitution, each Member State is required to report periodically to the Organization on the laws, regulations and statistics relating to its institutions and activities in the Organization's fields of competence. During the first decade of its existence, UNESCO's action in education statistics had two main thrusts: standard-setting, culminating in the adoption in 1958 of the Recommendation concerning the International Standardization of Educational Statistics; and the development of data collection and analysis, culminating in the publication between 1955 and 1972 of the five volumes of World Survey of Education. As a result, with regard to education the replies of some 200 countries and territories to annual questionnaires on institutions, teachers, pupils and repetition for the three levels of education, and on expenditure, have been kept by UNESCO in a data bank since 1960. (1) Statistics on illiteracy and educational attainment are drawn up on the basis of population censuses provided by the United Nations Statistical Division and by Member States. All the data are published annually - in Basic Facts and Figures from 1952 to 1962, and in the Statistical Yearbook since 1963. Determining world totals is complicated by the fact that the basic data (for example the structure of education systems and the meaning of the terms used) vary a great deal from one country to another. (2) UNESCO has concerned itself with the standardization of education statistics since 1958. The 1975 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), (3) repeated in the Revised Recommendation of 1978, (4) proposes a common conceptual framework which enables comparable statistics in the various countries to be assembled, compiled and presented. ISCED was designed to facilitate international comparison of education statistics and their use in conjunction with labour force and other economic statistics for purposes of human and educational resources planning. (5) As a result of the broadening of the conceptual framework of education, (6) a revision of ISCED is now under way in co-operation with the other international organizations concerned. (7)

CONSTITUTION OF UNESCO Article VIII As adopted in London in November 1945, and amended in 1972, the Constitution states that 'Each Member State shall submit to the Organization, at such times and in such manner as shall be determined by the General Conference, reports on the laws, regulations and statistics relating to its educational, scientific and cultural institutions and activities [...]'. In May 1946, the United States of America submitted to the Preparatory Commission of UNESCO two proposals, one of which concerned the setting up of an international service of educational statistics. This proposal was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO at its first session in November 1946. As a result, the programme of the Organization for 1947, as approved by the Executive Board at its second session in May of that year, contained the following project under the section on education: 'Educational Statistics'. In collaboration with a committee on educational statistics, the following activities will be carried on: Assist in the co-ordination, standardization and improvement of national educational statistics. Assist in the standardization of educational terminology. Advise Member States and intergovernmental organizations on general questions relating to the collection, interpretation and dissemination of statistical data on education. Explore the possibility of publishing an international education yearbook, which should contain information on educational policies and trends as well as statistics.'

To be useful as indicators, statistical data must be processed and expressed in the form of significant ratios. (8) A well-designed indicator should thus enable a particular figure to be interpreted – for example the enrolment rate as it relates to demographic data and investment in education – hence the importance of designing indicators that make it possible to measure the level of educational development, to monitor its trends, or to compare one period or one country with another. Information technology has greatly facilitated the development of indicators which serve, as it were, to chart the course of the education system. UNESCO has helped to improve and refine educational indicators, particularly as regards methods of projecting enrolment figures, the participation of girls or educational quality indicators. (9) World Education Indicators are published in the World Education Report. (10) The eleven tables of statistical indicators presented relate to the most significant aspects of education which are placed in their demographic, socio-economic, cultural and communication contexts by drawing on all the statistical data gathered by the Organization in its various domains of competence. (11)	Definition of Literate: A person who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life. A person is functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group and community and also for enabling him to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his own and the community's development. Revised Recommendations concerning the International Standardization of Educational Statistics, General Conference of UNESCO, 1978 Colin N. Power (Australia) Assistant Director-General for Education of UNESCO since 1989 While in the end, there is no simple and objective way of measuring the effectiveness of an education system, a more serious co-ordinated and systematic approach to gathering of information about what is happening in education systems and what is being achieved by them is urgently needed. We can and must monitor the 'health' of systems. In so doing, we should be aware of the strengths and limitations, both of the particular indicators and of the approach used. OECD Conference on Educational Indicators, Washington, December 1987 Colin N. Power (Australia) Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO, since 1989 Like the indicators in an airliner, educational indicators ought to provide policy makers, administrators, educators and the public with an 'at a glance' profile of the condition of institutions and the system as a whole. Their function is to alert decision makers to potential problem areas, those which need adjustment, and those which seem to be performing as intended. Indicators are designed to 'point' rather than to 'explain'. Indicators of the Quality of Educational Systems: an International Perspective, Norberto Bottani and Isabelle Delfau (eds), International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 14. No. 4. 1990 Norberto Bottani (Switzerland) OECD/CERI Secretariat The permanent monitoring of education systems is increasingly perceived as a means through which democratic societies will be able to maintain, reinforce and equalize the distribution of benefits and responsibilities. Contributing to the achievement of these tasks is one of the key functions and justifications for indicators. The OECD and International Educational Indicators: A Framework for Analysis. Introduction, OECD, 1992 Jacques Hallak (France) Director of IIPE since 1988 While substantial progress has been made in developing [education] information systems, there is a growing concern that the promise of such systems will not be realized unless more thought is given to ways in which improvements in information can be linked to better practice at the school level where the real activities of education occur. Preface, From Data to Action: Information Systems in Educational Planning, UNESCO/Pergamon Press, 1993 John A. Smyth (United Kingdom) Chief Editor of World Education Report Over a billion young people – nearly one-fifth of the world's population – are enrolled in formal education today, compared to around 300 million or one-tenth of the world's population in 1953, the earliest year for which UNESCO has global estimates of enrolment. Introduction, World Education Report 1995, UNESCO
World Survey of Education The first clearest result of UNESCO's clearing house effort was the publication in 1955 of the World Survey of Education, to be reissued every third year. The first volume, a handbook of Educational Organization and Statistics, is a monumental work (edited without the use of computers) of approximately 1,000 pages presenting information on the education systems of almost 200 countries and territories, with 'the educational ladders', diagrams showing the articulation of the various levels and types of institutions. Four other volumes were published according to the same structure, each constituting a work of reference which was self contained and yet formed part of a series: Volume II, Primary Education in 1958, Volume III, Secondary Education in 1961, Volume IV, Higher Education in 1966 and finally Volume V, Educational Policy, Legislation and Administration in 1971. The International Yearbook of EducationWorld Survey of Education. NB: the French versions were published in 1955 I, 1960 II, 1963 III, 1967 IV and 1972 V respectively.
The Organization co-operates with Member States in the development of statistical services and the use of management information systems (EMIS), in particular through training and further training activities, through the preparation of educational materials and through the establishment of networks for the development of regional indicators. In June 1992, UNESCO organized an International Conference on Long-Range Planning for Large-Scale Collection of International Education Statistics. The work of this Conference, attended by very many specialists, was devoted to better defining indicators, the quality of data, the need to update questionnaires and how to establish close co-operation and complementarity of action between national authorities, UNESCO and other international organizations concerned. At the regional level, for instance, the NESIS programme (12) provides African countries, in particular through the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), with specific assistance in setting up data bases and strengthening educational information systems.

Public recurrent expenditure per pupil in pre-primary, first and second level education, 1990 (US dollars)

Statistics on Education at the first level (Primary Education)
NESIS DIAGNOSTIC MODULES (13) Under the auspices of the ADEA Working Group on Education Statistics the NESIS programme has as its goal the strengthening of national education statistical information systems, and has developed a diagnostic package for the analysis of national education statistical systems. Building on these diagnoses, two sub-regional technical workshops have been organized, bringing together chief education statisticians and NESIS coordinators. The first workshop for anglophone countries was held in Harare in February 1993. A similar francophone workshop was held in Dakar later the same year. Some of the more salient findings were as follows: Insufficient allocation of resources for fundamental activities, such as reproduction of questionnaires for data collection and, very often, the dispatch and collection of the questionnaires to and from schools (in many countries, this is done on a purely ad-hoc basis, taking advantage of persons travelling privately – and many questionnaires get lost on the way); Manual verification and exploitation of school questionnaires, at decentralized and centralized levels, is time-consuming and a major source of error in the production of statistics; In many countries, statistics unit staff members are teachers who have not been trained to work with statistics; Countries tend to depend too much on external specialists, and there is a perceived reluctance of foreign long-term experts to co-operate or mix professionally with local staff.
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FOOTNOTES:

(1) With over 300,000 entries recorded every year.

(2) For instance, the duration of primary education varies between three and nine years in different countries.

(3) ISCED is now in general use. Many countries have drawn up national guidelines to bring their education systems into line with ISCED levels and fields. Most international and regional organizations use it for the presentation of educational statistics.

(4) The 1958 Recommendation concerning the Standardization of Educational Statistics was revised in 1978 in light of ISCED.

(5) For example, the International Standard Classification of Occupations drawn up by ILO.

(6) Particularly as regards post-secondary education, educational services provided by institutions not primarily concerned with education, and in respect of distance education.

(7) United Nations, EUROSTAT, OECD, etc.

(8) For example, expenditure as a percentage of GNP and public expenditure per pupil, growth rates.

(9) For example, the 'reconstructed cohort' method is based on the number of pupils enrolled and grade repeaters per academic year for two consecutive years (a cohort). This makes it possible to reconstruct promotion, repetition and drop-out rates and to calculate an 'efficiency coefficient', which is the ratio between the theoretical number of pupil-years that would be needed to complete a stage of education if there were no drop-out or repetition and the number of years actually completed by the cohort.

(10) Biennial Report: each issue is devoted to a particular theme: (1991 basic education, 1993 education in a world context of adjustment and change, 1995 education of women and girls).

(11) Available on CD-ROM and Internet.

(12) NESIS: Strengthening of National Education Statistical Information Systems.

(13) Countries having participated in NESIS workshops to elaborate action plans:

• • Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Chad
• Comoros
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• Guinea
• Kenya
• Malawi
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Niger
• Senegal
• Togo
• Uganda
• United Republic of Tanzania
• Zaire
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

TO KNOW MORE (see also CD-ROM, Vol. I)

1. Manual for the International Collection of Annual Statistics on Literacy Programmes. UNESCO, 1979. (English, French, Spanish)
2. Educational Systems Regulation: Methodological Guide. Paris, UNESCO, 1980. (Educational Studies and Documents. New Series, 38). (English, French)
3. Analysing and Projecting School Enrolment in Developing Countries: a Manual of Methodology. Tore Thonstad. UNESCO 1981. (English, French)
4. Manual for Statistics on Scientific and Technological Activities. UNESCO, 1984. (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian)
5. Les dépenses d'enseignement dans le monde: évolution passée et perspective à moyen terme. Gérard Lassibille. UNESCO, 1992 (Statistical reports and studies, 33). (French)
6. Compendium of Statistics on Illiteracy, 1995 edition. UNESCO, 1995. (Statistical reports and studies 35). (English)
7. World Education Report 1995. UNESCO, 1995. (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish)
8. Statistical Yearbook 1995. UNESCO/Bernan Press. (Trilingual: English/French/Spanish).
9. Des indicateurs pour la planification de l'éducation: un guide pratique. Claude Sauvageot. UNESCO-IIEP, 1996. (French)
10. International Standard Classification of Education. ISCED, revised version II. Paris, UNESCO-IBE, 1996. (ED-IBE-CONFINTED 45/6). (English, French, Spanish)