Recalculating Proficiency in Schools: COVID-19 Related Learning Losses and Dropping Out

Submitted by t.guyatt on March 18, 2021 - 2:51pm
Traditional ways of measuring educational proficiency, based on assessment results and the percentage of children enrolled in schooling, may not be as effective a measurement while COVID-19 impacts upon attendance rates.

Analysts working with SDG indicators on learning proficiency, in particular Indicator 4.1.1, would in many cases be familiar with a formula such as the following:

Updates to UIS Database Include a Data Refresh for Education

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) updates its database three times a year as new data from Member States become available through the annual surveys.

For the data refresh taking place on 3 March 2021, the UIS is updating economic data on education expenditure, as well as indicators on literacy and educational achievement as follows:

Indicators refined:

Projections for Learning Proficiency can Inform Future Educational Strategies

Submitted by t.guyatt on February 8, 2021 - 4:45pm

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) will soon be releasing its projections of the impact of COVID-19 on the learning proficiency of children and youth, building upon previous UIS projections published in early 2020, before the pandemic. Projections of this kind are vital and inform the planning conducted by national governments, global bodies, and development assistance organizations.

SDG 4 Data Digest for 2020 Highlights Importance of Using Household Surveys

The UIS is the custodian agency for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on education and is in charge of collecting and disseminating data for the indicators used to monitor progress toward the targets under SDG 4. Collecting education data that is of high quality and comparable across countries is important to fulfill the objectives of SDG 4. It is also crucial to ensure that all children and young people are represented in the data.

Survey of Formal Education Informational Webinars

Starting this week, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) will be hosting a series of webinars, working with Member States in the important process of collecting data to inform Sustainable Development Goal 4 for education (SDG 4). According to the SDG 4 - Education 2030 Framework for Action the UIS is the official source of cross-nationally comparable data on education, and the Survey of Formal Education is a key part of fulfilling this mandate.  

The UIS has Launched its 2021 Data Collection on Literacy and Educational Attainment

The bi-annual Survey on Literacy and Educational Attainment launches on November 27. The data collected will complement the information from the UIS Survey of Formal Education. The questionnaires for the 2021 literacy and attainment survey are posted on the UIS website, http://uis.unesco.org/uis-questionnaires and are available to download in English, French and Spanish.

UNESCO-UNICEF-World Bank Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures – Key Results (2nd Iteration)

Results released for the 2nd iteration of the UNESCO-UNICEF-World Bank survey to monitor national education responses to COVID-19 school closures.

As part of the coordinated global education response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank jointly launched the Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures to enable policy makers to assess the global impact of the pandemic.

Launch of 2021 Survey of Formal Education for SDG 4 Data

The UIS is launching its annual 2021 Survey of Formal Education for the reference year ending in 2020 to ensure the timely collection of data for SDG 4. The questionnaires and related materials are available on the UIS website at: http://uis.unesco.org/uis-questionnaires.

As the custodian agency for SDG 4 data, the UIS collects education data and develops indictors to enable Member States to meet national commitments to the Agenda 2030 Framework.

World Teacher’s Day 2020 – Oct 5-12

With COVID-19 school closures, teachers are faced with a myriad of challenges – the transition to remote teaching and the safe return to school to name a few. For World Teacher’s Day, the UIS, the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 and the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR) teams have jointly released this factsheet to highlight the training gaps and needs of teachers in times of crisis: