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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Turning the Spotlight on Those Left Behind to Mark the First International Day of Education

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By Manos Antoninis, Director of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report and Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics

On the first International Day of Education, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report announce a new partnership to demonstrate education inequalities and show those lagging behind in achieving the global UN education goal, SDG 4. Continue reading →

A Partnership for a Global Public Good: Data to Improve Learning

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By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Girindre Beeharry, Director of the Global Education Learning Strategy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Emily Woolf, Senior Education Adviser, UK Department for International Development (DfID)

With 617 million children and adolescents worldwide unable to read a simple sentence or handle a basic math calculation, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has embarked on an initiative to link existing international, regional and national assessments to fill a critical data gap on learning during the early grades of education. Continue reading →

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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Measuring and Reporting on SDG 4 and Beyond: Lessons from the Innovations in Global Learning Metrics Symposium

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By Luis Crouch, Senior Economist of RTI International and Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

The recent symposium Innovations in Global Learning Metrics: A Focused Debate among Users, Producers and Researchers, hosted by Arizona State University’s Center for Advanced Studies in Global Education (CASGE), brought together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss how to more effectively use global learning metrics for education policymaking. Some of the most interesting discussions focused on the options to achieve globally-comparable reporting on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) based on a paper prepared by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

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