Use of Census and Administrative Data in Monitoring of Education Indicators – an international perspective Said Ould Voffal UNESCO Institute for Statistics Kampala, May 2008

UNESCO Institute for Statistics Mission: UIS is responsible for the collection, analysis and dissemination of statistics; and to promote the use of international statistics – source of internationally comparable data Education Statistics Literacy Statistics Science and Technology Culture and Communication Adult Education Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP) International Data Repository

Main users of UIS data UNESCO –Global Education Digest (UIS) –EFA – Education For All annual report –Women in Science WORLD BANK – World Development Indicators UNSD – Millennium Development Goals UNDP – Human Development Report UNICEF – State of the World’s Children USAID UNFPA WHO Researchers, companies and students Most agencies request the information between January and March of each year.

UIS - How does UIS Maintain Internationally Comparable Statistics? Same data collection instruments for all countries Standardized definitions and formulas ISCED to classify programmes – and to maintain international comparability of indicators e.g. Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi (8 grades nationally, but 6 grades internationally) Population estimates from the United Nations Population Division for all countries Coverage – inclusion of all educational institutions and groups in the data

Millennium Development Goals and UIS Education Statistics and Indicators Millennium Development Goal Education Statistics Indicators 1 ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION BY 2015 > Goal : Net Enrollment Ratio in Primary Education 2.2 : Survival Rate to last Grade in Primary 2.3: Literacy rates of 15 – 24 year olds Background indicator: Primary gross completion rate 2 PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN > Goal 3 1) Gender Parity Index in Primary Education Data collected from the annual UIS Education Statistics Survey Questionnaires are useful for the production of relevant education indicators for the assessment of Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3.

MDG-EFA education indicators Education-related MDG indicators are a subset of the EFA ones  Improving data quality for EFA means improving also quality for MDG

Raw data required for calculating UIS-MDG indicators Enrolment by age/grade/gender for primary education (ISCED 1) : Collected by UIS from countries Data on repeaters by grade/gender for primary education : collected by UIS from countries Demographic data (provided by UNPD)

Data Source Mainly administrative data provided by countries from their annual school census by Ministry of education Literacy data collected by NSOs in censuses We collect raw data which we use to calculate indicators: to maintain comparability in methodology

UIS annual data collection UIS sends each questionnaires to all all countries around the world UIS organizes trainings, workshop, capacity buildings programmes on education statistics and regional represenation in all regions.

Indicator 2.1: total primary net enrolment ratio Definition: number of children of primary (ISCED 1) age enrolled either in primary or lower secondary expressed as % of primary school-age population. Sources of discrepancies between international sources:  Different definitions of primary education nationally and internationally (eg : Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi)  Differences between population data used nationnally and internationnally  Coverage issues (like private education)

Quality issues for indicator 2.1 Reliability problems of the age of children : in many cases, ages are based on parent declaration The date of reference for age is not always the right one

Availability of administrative data for calculating indicator 2.1 Globally, indicator is calculated for 140 countries (around 67 %) For this group of countries: 14 countries out of 19 (74%) have provided data each year during the period for the year Better than the World average!

Indicator 2.1 Provided AGE data are not published for: Cameroon: Data by age not reliable Liberia : no data provided between Uganda : due to confirmed misreporting of AGE data at the sub-national levels, Sierra Leone : misreporting of age data at the sub- national levels.

Indicator 2.2 : Survival rate to primary last grade Definition The proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary education. Known as the Survival Rate to last Grade of primary. Sources of discrepancies between global and national figures:  Country figures may differ from the international ones because of differences between the national education system and ISCED97. Also coverage data (e.g :including adult education)

Indicator 2.2 Problem of reliability of data on repeaters due the fact that when repeaters change school they may not be recorded as repeaters.

Indicator 2.2: Data availability 1.11 out of 19 countries (58%) have reported consistent primary data by grade grade of Primary during 2000 – For countries such as Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Kenya, it is observed that marked differences in repetition by grade exist (especially at Grade 1 of Primary) over at least 6 years without feedback/validation from countries during the country review process; and partial or missing data for the same period. 3.Missing data in the above countries is probably due to the design of national data collection instruments, or inconsistent reporting between years..

Main Data Quality Issues (by country – primary education) COUNTRYMAIN DATA QUALITY ISSUES Year of Most Recent Admin. Data BotswanaData coverage is comprehensive 2005 EthiopiaData coverage is comprehensive 2007 GhanaRepetition by Grade 2007 KenyaRepetition by Grade 2006 LesothoData coverage is comprehensive 2006 LiberiaPost - Conflict Country 2006 MalawiQuality of Age Data 2006 MauritiusData coverage is comprehensive 2006 MozambiqueData coverage is comprehensive 2006 NamibiaData coverage is comprehensive 2006 Sierra LeonePost - Conflict Country 2007 South AfricaQuality of Age Data 2004 SwazilandData coverage is comprehensive 2005 UgandaQuality of Age Data 2006 TanzaniaData coverage is comprehensive 2007 ZambiaQuality of Age Data 2006 ZimbabweInconsistent reporting to UIS 2006

What UIS is doing to improve the Quality and Coverage of Data? Conducts annual country review process – feedback of related education Statistics to MOE national statisticians – 50% of countries respond to the country review process. Conducts regional education statistics workshops every two years to improve coverage, review overall data quality, and complete data gaps (Ghana, 2005) Tanzania (2007), South Africa (2003) Conducts site visits to countries for specific data quality assessment activities (Uganda, 2005) Kenya and Tanzania (2004)

What UIS is doing to improve the Quality and Coverage of Data? Engages UIS regional and statistical advisors to follow-up on data gaps and improve overall quality of data disseminated by the UIS and related Statistical Capacity building (based in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana and Senegal) Continual research activities and comparison of secondary sources of data e.g. household surveys, MICS etc Continually improving methodology to analyze data

The way forward……………….. UIS has selected an initial 9 priority countries based on a data gap analysis of 1999 – 2006 reported data, and an assessment of data coverage and quality for sub-Saharan Africa to initialize a strategy to improve data quality in Sub-Saharan Africa - these include Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria In collaboration with UIS regional advisors, UNESCO Pole de Dakar and Ministries of Education, the following activities are envisaged: CountryActivity Partner Malawi RESEN activity anticipated in February - March 2009Pole de Dakar Nigeria RESEN activities anticipated in at least 3 states in 2009Pole de Dakar, MOE Sierra Leone Continual improvement of coverage of data and private institutions UIS Regional Advisor, MOE South Africa Country to consider further analysis of households data to validate data by age from admin. Sur Department of Education Uganda Final rollout of UIS EMIS tool to promote longitudinal analysis of data - March 2008 UIS Regional Advisor, MOE