Worldwide Education Statistics Enhancing UNESCO's Role (1995) / Chapter Skim
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4 Conclusions
4 Conclusions
Pages 29-45
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From page 29... ...
That the old ways no longer suffice was reflected by UNESCO's own General Conference in 1989, which recognized "the importance of reliable, relevant and up-to-date statistical information for research, planning, monitoring and evaluation in major areas of social concern at both the national and international levels" and called on the organization to provide "statistical data that are relevant, internationally comparable and above all useful to and needed by researchers, planners and decision-makers at various levels" (UNESCO, 1990:146-7~. The New Globalism and Information In 1945, in the aftermath of World War II's destruction and the beginning of the ideological divisions of the cold war, it would have been diffi 29
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From page 30... ...
Today there is a global investment and trade economy, an understanding (at least intellectually) of worldwide ecological interdependence, an emerging international consciousness about human rights and humanitarian issues, and an intense reliance on human capital formation to sustain a nation's global competitive status and internal civic structure.
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From page 31... ...
Growing Global Concerns for Civic and Social Justice The last 50 years have seen a worldwide growth in consciousness about issues of democracy, citizen empowerment, freedom of communication, civic participation, gender equity and the conditions of women and children, human rights and criminal justice, and the general quality of life for all the world's populations. These concerns are not universal or totally consistent over time.
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From page 32... ...
Thus, for example, one recommendation of the 1990 World Conference on Education for All was the "urgent task" of improving the technical services and mechanisms to collect, process, and analyze data pertaining to basic education, because "a country's information and knowledge base is vital in preparing and implementing a plan of action" (InterAgency Commission, 1990:57~. Growing Reliance on Human Capital Development Nations and international development agencies increasingly view human capital formation as a major means for achieving a productive economy and civil society.
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From page 33... ...
The petroleum, telecommunications, and entertainment industries are illustrative of organizations that are in many ways transnational or extranational. Modern communication, transportation, and capital networks enable these industries to conduct much of their business outside formal channels of government.
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From page 34... ...
For example, in another era, when education statistics were beginning to be collected by UNESCO, users were generally satisfied with numerical data regarding the status of an education activity. Education statistics were considered adequate if they reported on the key inputs of the education system, typically enrollments, staffing, and finance.
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From page 35... ...
For example, mean spending levels per pupil, national per-capita levels of school spending, national mean teacher salaries relative to per-capita income, and pupil-teacher ratios can be combined into a composite indicator or index of a nation's financial commitment to support schooling. Similarly, a composite indicator or index could be constructed to measure pupil performance or levels of professional preparation for teachers.
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From page 36... ...
An organization expecting to satisfy the demand for complex and sophisticated statistics should be aware of the operating principles and practices that are generally expected to characterize an effective modern statistical agency. Principles The sine qua non features of an effective statistical agency, whether international or national, private or public, government or nongovernment, new or old, are relevance, credibility, and trust.
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The mission should stress the com 2This point was made by David Chapman at the session BICSE organized to discuss the UNESCO statistical program at the 1995 annual meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society.
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From page 38... ...
Many nations in Western Europe, North America, and selected areas of Asia have long benefited from high rates of economic development, sustained peace, and stable governments. They often possess internal statistics collection systems that can rather easily comply with the expectations of an international statistical agency seeking highly accurate information.
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From page 39... ...
Thus, a successful international statistical agency will need to establish and maintain a regular and dependable schedule of data collection and distribution. Autonomy and Independence A large part of the credibility of any statistical agency resides with its ability to withstand almost inevitable pressures to bend data and analytic findings to the support of narrowly conceived political interests or accept statistical reports that appear to exaggerate a country's accomplishments for the sake of status or prestige.
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From page 40... ...
For example, stressing professional qualifications for the agency executive; appointment of the agency executive for a specified term of office; giving the agency executive primary authority for selection of professional staff; broad authority for the agency over scope, content, and frequency of data collected; adherence to a systematic schedule of data collection and publication; and extreme caution in engaging in activities that are not immediately related to the agency's statistical mission are illustrative of the steps that can be taken to ensure the reality as well as the perception of the agency's impartiality. High Professional Standards The agency continually should examine and disseminate information about the standards it uses in acquiring and publishing statistical information The standards should be established with the advice of the technical statistical community.
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From page 41... ...
After reviewing UNESCO's existing statistics program in light of international needs for education information and the principles and practices of good statistical agencies, BICSE has concluded that improving global education statistics and indicators requires more than incremental changes. It will not be enough to identify individual variables that might be added to the data collection effort or to make piecemeal alterations in practice to bolster this or that aspect of the statistics program.
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From page 42... ...
Before elaborating on the fundamental issues that UNESCO needs to address and making recommendations for change, it is important to convey an overarching perspective. UNESCO's current education statistics program has both strengths and shortcomings, and no effort has been made in this report to deny the former or disguise the latter.
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From page 43... ...
It raises questions about the division's ability to exercise when appropriate the professional autonomy and independence expected of a reputable statistical agency. It would appear to complicate the task of attracting and empowering the kind of strong leadership needed to meet today's particularly demanding requirements: clearly articulating a vision of what the division could be like, persuading an extraordinarily diverse set of constituents and prospective funders of the usefulness of such a vision, protecting the operation from untoward ideological incursions, recruiting world-class statistical professionals and ensuring the division's ongoing adherence to high technical and professional standards, acting as the agency's ambassador with a wide assortment of data providers and users, and widely touting the organization's new vitality and credibility.
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From page 44... ...
Resource limitations are at least partly responsible for a growing gap between the expectations for and the reality of UNESCO's education statistics program. Data collection is largely restricted to the same three education questionnaires that the organization has used for at least the last two decades, in spite of growing interest in issues that are not addressed by these surveys.
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From page 45... ...
In our view, though, the organization will not be well positioned to defend the scope and quality of its education statistics program until it remedies the failure to define and commit itself to a core set of activities consistent with the principles and practices of a good statistical agency and widely recognized as legitimate by its major constituencies and users. Unless external agencies perceive a meaningful commitment to this core, it is unlikely that they will view UNESCO as the most appropriate vehicle through which to fund and implement their own ideas for improving education statistics and indicators.
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