Education data release for SDG 4 and other relevant policy indicators
The UIS has added new administrative data from the UIS Survey of Formal Education and the UOE data collection for 128 countries worldwide. The new approach to data collection uses dynamic templates to produce 23 indicators on students, teachers, schools, and education expenditure, and has resulted in increases in data coverage for SDG 4 and other education indicators.
The new data has been made available in UIS’s databases including disaggregated data on the proportion of children and young people achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics (Indicator 4.1.1); the participation rate in organized learning, one year before the official primary entry age (Indicator 4.2.2); the enrolment ratio for tertiary education (Indicator 4.3.2); and the participation rate of youth and adults in formal and non-formal education and training in the previous 12 months (Indicator 4.3.1).
The UIS databases
- The Global Education Observatory is a gateway to education data for the seven benchmark indicators, including interactive visualizations enabling user to view data by sex, region, and country. Data on COVID-19 are also available, as are links to other databases giving users access to a wide array of information from equity in education (WIDE), to SDG 4 indicators (SCOPE), and education levels (PEER/ISCED).
- The SDG 4 Data Explorer provides data users with easy-to-navigate dashboards organized by country or SDG 4 indicator and the ability to download a long format database. In this release, two tabs have been added for regional averages and country profiles that include ISCED mappings.
- UIS.Stat is a data portal which includes a broader education database with other policy relevant indicators.
- UIS Bulk Data Download Service provides all UIS-produced indicators in CSV format.
Spotlight: The September 2022 data release includes new data and regional averages on learning outcomes
The 'prepared for the future’ Indicator 4.1.0 combines the two global Indicators 4.1.2 and 4.1.1, and the current data released regional averages from 2000 to 2020 for the first time. Based on the new estimates, a blog by the UIS and the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report highlights that more than 600 million children and adolescents are currently not prepared for the future, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa (less than 10% prepared) and Central and Southern Asia.
In July 2022, nine out of ten UNESCO Member States agreed to SDG 4 benchmarks for seven key indicators for 2025 and 2030 which include Indicators 4.1.1 and 4.1.2. However, even if these benchmark goals are met, the percentage of children and adolescents prepared for the future in 2030 will increase from 38% in 2020 to just 63% in 2030.
UIS Data Refresh March 2023
The education data collected and produced by the UIS are the source for SDG 4 reporting by the UN and are also used in multiple external indices. The Millennium Challenge Corporation scorecard, for example, uses UIS data to track its indicators for primary education expenditure, and girls’ completion rates for both primary and secondary school. The data on government expenditure on primary education used to calculate this indicator are collected annually in the UIS Survey of Formal Education through Questionnaire B on Educational Expenditure. WIPO incorporates UIS data into its Innovation Index (among others); UIS data forms the basis of the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Index, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, and the UIS/World Bank jointly developed Learning Poverty indicator.
The UIS March 2023 Data Refresh takes into account late submissions or updates to the data collected from countries through the UIS 2022 Survey of Formal Education. To ensure inclusion, submissions must be made by 2 January 2023.
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