By Tanya Guyatt, 60 million girls Foundation
International Women’s Day on 8 March is a time to celebrate achievements in advancing gender equality. It’s also a day to push for more progress, and this year’s theme “think equal, build smart, innovate for change” suggests that real change requires a new approach. We need innovative solutions to reach the remaining out-of-school girls and to ensure that all children finish school with the skills to thrive in today’s modern, global economy.
By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).
Better Data = Better Policies
This is a busy but exciting time at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), where we are getting ready to provide you with more country-level and timely data on all levels of education. On 28 February, we will be updating our global education database.
While the global numbers and regional averages will not change, we will be releasing more data from countries so that you have a more complete picture of the education situation facing children, youth and adults the world over.
With this data release, we want to encourage countries, donors, international organizations and engaged citizens – to make the case for education at the next High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, which will meet this July and discuss global progress in education. Even the most basic data show that we are far from the goal of ensuring that every child is in school and learning by 2030. Continue reading
By Luis Crouch, Chief Technical Officer, and Amber Gove, Director of Research, RTI International
The recent edition of the SDG 4 Data Digest illustrates the range of partners working alongside the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to help countries produce and use assessment data to strengthen lifelong learning. This blog highlights the work of one of these vital partners: RTI International, which aims to improve the human condition by turning research knowledge into practice. RTI International’s contribution to the SDG 4 Data Digest provided expert analysis on reading and mathematics assessments for children in the early grades of school.
By Friedrich Huebler, Head of Education Standards and Methodology at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and Kevin McGee, Economist in the Development Data Group at the World Bank.
A new guidebook published by the World Bank and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) casts light on how to measure the heavy burden of education spending that falls on the world’s families. Measuring Household Expenditure on Education: A Guidebook for Designing Household Survey Questionnaires will help countries report on SDG 4 Indicator 4.5.4: education expenditure per student by level of education and source of funding. The guidebook also aims to ensure proper representation of education expenditure in consumption-based poverty and inequality measures, and enable more micro-econometric research on resource allocation in households.
By Élisé Wendlassida Miningou, Education Economist, and Ramya Vivekanandan, Senior Education Specialist, Global Partnership for Education (GPE)
Political leaders and policymakers the world over share one common challenge: relentless demands for resources. They have to make tough choices about resource allocation, particularly in countries that are most fragile and conflict-affected where the needs are vast and the available resources are constrained by numerous other priorities. It is hardly surprising that learning assessments may not be at the top of their ‘to do’ list.
By Manos Antoninis, Director of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report and Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics
On the first International Day of Education, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report announce a new partnership to demonstrate education inequalities and show those lagging behind in achieving the global UN education goal, SDG 4. Continue reading
By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Girindre Beeharry, Director of the Global Education Learning Strategy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Emily Woolf, Senior Education Adviser, UK Department for International Development (DfID)
With 617 million children and adolescents worldwide unable to read a simple sentence or handle a basic math calculation, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has embarked on an initiative to link existing international, regional and national assessments to fill a critical data gap on learning during the early grades of education. Continue reading
