Category Archives: Uncategorized

Join the Push for SDG 4 Data

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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 →

Focus on our SDG 4 Data Digest Partners: RTI International

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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.

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Family Spending on Education: New Guidebook on Measurement

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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.

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Data + Policy = Action on International Day for Women and Girls in Science

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By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

On 11 February, the world will observe the International Day for Women and Girls in Science. While celebrating achievements, we must continue to focus on advancing gender equality in science and technology as women are still underrepresented in all areas, from research and engineering to tech start-ups. Pursuing gender parity in science is also part of wider global efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) while supporting SDG 9 for innovation and SDG 17 on technological capacity building in developing countries.

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Focus on our SDG 4 Data Digest Partners: The Global Partnership for Education

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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.

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Focus on our SDG 4 Data Digest Partners: ASER Centre, India

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By Rukmini Banerji, CEO, Pratham Education Foundation and Suman Bhattacharjea, Director of Research, ASER Centre

The new edition of the SDG 4 Data Digest illustrates the range of partners working with 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: India’s ASER Centre, responsible for the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey and the global pioneer for citizen-led assessments.  

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Focus on our SDG 4 Data Digest Partners: Early Childhood Education and the Offord Centre for Child Studies

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By Magdalena Janus, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences (McMaster University), Offord Centre for Child Studies

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 one of these vital partners: the Offord Centre for Child Studies, and specifically Professor Magdalena Janus, who brought years of expertise to the Digest’s analysis on early childhood development (ECD). Here, Magdalena shares her thoughts on the critical importance of measuring early learning.

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No Time to Lose on the Road to Universal Primary and Secondary Education

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By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
This blog was also published by the GPE

The latest figures on out-of-school-children are disappointing, showing progress that is – at best – painfully slow.

Despite every promise and declaration, and all the genuine efforts made to date, there are still around 262 million – or one out of every five – children, adolescents and youth between the ages of 6-17 out of school. That figure rises to a shocking one in three children out of school in the world’s poorest countries. What’s worse is that new data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) show that progress has stalled, with the rates and the numbers remaining more or less static for years.  Continue reading →

A Quick Win in Monitoring How Much Children Learn

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By Nadir Altinok (Associate Professor of Economics, Université de Lorraine, France) and Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

This blog was originally published by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)

The news that more than more than half – 617 million – children and adolescents of primary and lower secondary school age worldwide are not reaching minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics is a wake-up call for educators and for statisticians. Without such data, we would be unaware of the learning crisis that threatens progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a crisis that demands an urgent response from education ministries, most certainly, but also from the world’s data gatherers. Continue reading →

Moving Up a Gear: The CapED Initiative

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By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and Jordan Naidoo, Director of the UNESCO Division for Education 2030 Support and Coordination

This blog was also published by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

In 2015, the international community agreed on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which now forms the universal education agenda to 2030. Many countries still have a far way to go to reach these targets, and to do this, they will need external support to overhaul their education systems. There are two dimensions at stake to achieve SDG 4: identification of policy priorities and the associated data availability and quality to monitor progress.  Continue reading →