International comparability of statistics of education

Abstract

Despite a considerable improvement in both the quantity and the quality of statistical information on key aspects of national education systems available in international publications, using the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), considerable problems of interpretation are still limiting the use of these data. Producers and users of the data are more fully aware of the problems and realize that some problems can be solved only by a more fundamental analysis of the special difficulties which the varied institutional structures in Education present to international statisticians. This paper discusses some of these difficulties, particularly in the area of higher education. It draws attention to the need to provide a greater degree of contextual information about individual countries as a background to an adequate interpretation of the data it supplies, even when these data are expressed using accepted international conventions. It also considers the possibility that some revision of ISCED may be necessary to clarify some ambiguities and to provide a base for future development.

It also discusses a number of practical problems which require further attention by national statisticians to improve international comparability of data in this area.