Education Data and SDMX Towards Implementation of SDMX January 9 – 11, 2007, World Bank, Washington D.C.

lPart of a broad UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) effort to improve quality and timeliness lUNESCO Responsible agency for international education statistics Responsible agency for International Standard Classification for Education Statistics (ISCED). lScope of cooperative project on SDMX and Education Administrative data collections (international data) Shared processing among UNESCO, OECD, Eurostat Introduction

Actors in the system of international education data collections lWho collects data: International agencies cooperating as data requester UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) »Scope: All countries world wide (200+ countries) OECD »OECD member states, partner countries (34 countries) EUROSTAT »EU Member, EEA countries, Candidate countries, Western Balkan countries (35 countries) lWho provides data: National agencies nominated by country »Ministries of Education (up to 3 different ministries!) »National statistical offices

lThe UNESCO-UIS / OECD / EUROSTAT (UOE) Data Collection on Education Statistics EXCEL based questionnaire, organized in 31 work sheets 47 countries, 14,000+ data points Processing of countries split by organizations lThe World Education Indicators Project (WEI) Based on UOE Instruments, extended by 10 work sheets 16 countries, >15,000+ data points Processed by UIS Examples at lThe UIS Survey Pdf based E-Questionnaire infrastructure, plus paper form All remaining countries, 5,000+ data points Processed by UIS Examples at -> current surveyswww.uis.unesco.org Instruments used in the system of international education data collections (I)

The world of international education data collections

The world of international education data collections lEach of the international organizations has its own data and indicator release OECD »Education at a Glance, EUROSTAT »Key figures in Education, New Cronos UNESCO Institute for Statistics »UIS Web dissemination »Global Education Digest »Distribution to third parties –Education for all, MDGs, World bank WDI, Human Development Index, ….

Instruments used in the system of international education data collections (II) UOE i ii i i i i UIS Can be transformed WEI

lThe UOE data requester design the questionnaire in cooperation Co-ordinate the dissemination of instruments lNational agencies submit completed forms to a joint address, that forwards data to the 3 data requester lOECD processes OECD countries; EUROSTAT processes residual EU- interest countries; UIS processes residual countries lThe UOE data requester exchange processed data produce and review statistics separately release results The UOE - Collect together, disseminate separately

Collect together, disseminate separately Country hub OECD Data Processing UIS Calculation and Dissemination EUROSTAT OECD Processed data UIS

lCommunication with countries lUpdates Countries submit updates to one or more organizations Version control Integration with already processed data lData Verification and quality assurance Different organizations focus on different sub-sets of data for their publications: Data verification is inconsistent and of different intensity for different sub-sets. lPunctuality Different organizations work on different schedules: data are not readily processed by one organization for punctual use by another Challenges

lIT Handling of different and ever changing Instruments Transformation of UOE data to UIS data lDissemination Different methodology in calculation of similar indicators Use of different economic or population data for identical statistics Challenges

lWhy SDMX? lImplications for stakeholders The data provider The international agency receiving and processing the data The other two international agencies dependent upon the data The consumer (international report, international agency) What would an SDMX solution look like?

Impact on Data Providers

Impact on International Org. receiving the data

Impact on International Orgs (2)

lNo visible or obvious changes from a data management perspective; lData will have greater coherence across agencies; lMetadata will be more available; lConcepts and methods should be more harmonious; lData will be of a higher quality; lTimeliness will be improved; Impact on the users of Statistics (external)

lAll education questionnaires and education outputs are being looked at and a conceptual data model is being developed; lThe objective is to create a single DSD for all international education statistics (adhering to relevant standards); The Data Structure Definition(s)

lElimination of redundant and possibly inconsistent data lImprovements to timeliness and quality; lEfficiency gains – reallocation of resources to functions providing higher value lIT investment costs will be somewhat offset by elimination of other ongoing costs supporting the current environment; investment considered strategic lOur role in the international statistical system imposes upon us the need to work on a DSD for Education. Risks lThe technical risks are low. The IT aspects have been done before with other SDMX projects – and are generally not unique to SDMX. lThis is the first social statistics project for SDMX. lThe necessary changes to business processes may be difficult to effect. Is there a Business Case?

lUNESCO dissemination via SDMX to key institutional stakeholders in 2008 lTransform the current dissemination model from a ‘push’ model to a ‘pull’ model. Future Plans?

Brian Buffett & Michael Bruneforth Thanks