Education statistics in the Arab States

Hendrik van der PolDirector, UNESCO Institute for Statistics

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UIS: who are we?

Founded in 1999; moved to the Montreal in 2001

Areas of UNESCO mandate: Education Science and technology Culture Communication and information

Presence in the field – including a cluster advisor based in Doha

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UIS: what do we do? Collect and disseminate cross-nationally comparable data Develop methodological approaches and maintain

international classifications Monitor progress towards international goals such as EFA

and related MDG Develop national technical capacity Advocate for use of statistics as part of evidence-based

policy-making

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Why comparable education statistics?

To inform on national development plans (e.g., skill development strategies)

Sector-wide planning Benchmark performance with other education

systems Monitor progress towards national and

international development goals Advocate for resource mobilization

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Education statistics in the Arab States

Coverage problems by level Pre-primary data (6 countries)

TVET data (7 countries)

Private schools enrolment (7 countries)

Higher education statistics (6 countries)

According to UNESCO regional groupings, the Arab States comprises of 20 Member States.

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Data gaps in the Arab States region

Availablility of data points by country, Arab States, 1999-2008

9995

87 87 85 8478 76

72 70 70 70 70 70 6964

5753

42

26

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Lebanon

Morocco

Kuw

ait Occupied

Palestinian Territory

Tunisia

United A

rabEm

irates

Mauritania

Om

an

Qatar

Algeria

Bahrain

Djibouti

Jordan

Syrian Arab

Republic

Egypt

Sudan

Yemen

Iraq

Saudi Arabia

Libyan Arab

Jamahiriya

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Data gaps in the Arab States regionAvailablility of data points by indicator, Arab States, 1999-2008

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

GPI, GER, primary

Gross intake rate at the last grade of primary

GPI, GER, secondary

Gross enrolment ratio at Pre-Primary

Adjusted net enrolment rate at primary (NER+)

Pupil/teacher ratio at Primary

Technical/vocational as % of total enrolment inSecondary

GPI, GER, tertiary

Survival rate to last grade in Primary

Education expenditure as % of total gov. exp.

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Institutional arrangements for educational provision

Education statistical system in the Arab States:

Central systems (Ministry of Education) covers all level of education in only 6 countries

Separate higher education systems in 11 countries

Independent TVET systems in 7 countries

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Outcome of institutional fragmentation

Lack of coherent statistics across the education system

Different data collection methodologies (unmatched underlying data, i.g. financial data)

Different reference periods Scope of information is unclear

Scattered information reporting

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Recommendation

Countries should further develop sector-wide systems for education statistics

This can be achieved through: Better coordination among all stakeholders Appropriate legislative frameworks Development of technical capacity

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Thank youلكم ً شكرا

www.uis.unesco.org