UNESCO Conference on Education Data and Statistics

Since 2015, Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) has brought important changes to monitoring progress in education. These changes create opportunities, but also increase demands on national statistical systems. The Technical Cooperation Group on SDG 4 Indicators (TCG) was established to lead the development of the monitoring framework. But the field of education statistics has not benefited from a regular, open forum where questions about the present and the future of internationally comparable data can be explored. 

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is organizing the first UNESCO Conference on Education Data and Statistics aiming to:

• Establish an international community of practice of education statisticians guiding the TCG.
• Communicate, discuss, and reach consensus on concepts, definitions, methodologies, and operational aspects of indicator measurement in the form of recommendations and guidelines for adoption as international standards.
• Debate the impact of technology on education statistics and ways in which the community of education statisticians can benefit from opportunities and address challenges.

Key issues to be discussed 

• Synergies between data sources to expand coverage and improve efficiency.
• International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) and ISCED-T on teacher training.
• Administrative, household survey, learning assessment, teacher and expenditure data.
• Lessons learned from the SDG 4 benchmarking process.
• Data for the future and the best use of technology.

Participants

UNESCO Member States (experts from ministries of education, learning assessment agencies, and national statistical offices).

Observers

Regional statistical agencies and organizations; United Nations specialized agencies, and other international organizations; aid agencies, foundations, and private partners, non-governmental organizations, and the teaching profession.