2012 June 2012 June Volume VolumeV, V,Issue Issue66 The Newsletter The World Bank Education Statistics Newsletter 71419 What’s New? Contents EdStats’ social media following is growing on What’s New on the Facebook and Twitter Pg. 1 EdStats website? The EdStats Facebook page now has over 700 “likes� and Twit- ter page (@EdStats) has over 1600 followers. The EdStats team Education Data Pg. 2 posts weekly charts and tables to illustrate education statistics Availability by Indica- as well as updates and news on the two sites. Be sure to “like� or tors “follow� EdStats to receive the Weekly EdStat and these up- dates. Education Data Pg. 3 Availability by Coun- try and Region World Bank Education launches new Twitter feed A Global View on The World Bank Education team recently announced the arrival Pg. 4 Education Data of @WBeducation, a new Twitter account where you can find the Availability latest news and information on the World Bank's Education Sec- tor in 140 characters or less. The team will tweet links to Educa- tion blogs, announcements, feature stories, events etc., as well as other audio-visual content, including interviews, pictures, and informative statistics. www.worldbank.org/education/edstats/ 1 June 2012 Volume V, Issue 6 Adequate Data on Education Systems: Do we have enough data to inform policymaking and track the education MDGs? The EdStats Query includes over 700 education indicators from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) that describe education systems from enrolments to expenditures and pre-primary to tertiary education. Adequate data on these indicators can inform policymaking and improve educational ac- cess and quality. Unfortunately, some countries do not or cannot report their data to the UIS, which can limit understanding and analysis of some countries’ education systems. Global, regional, and na- tional gaps in data availability restrict the ability of governments and development agencies to monitor educational progress. These gaps also limit the ability to plan policy changes needed to reach the education Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In order to promote access to quality education statistics to promote better policymaking, this newslet- ter will analyze the levels of data availability for over 700 UIS education indicators in the EdStats Query. The analysis seeks to point out gaps in data availability and also highlight model countries that have successfully reported high percentages of education indicators to the UIS. I. Data Availability by Indicators Chart 1. Overall Average Data Availability and Data Availability of On average, countries around the the Education MDG Indicators (1990-2009) world reported data for less than half (43.8 percent) of education in- dicators between the years of 2000 and 2009.1 Data availability im- proved significantly between 1995 (12.6 percent) and 2000 (41.8 per- cent), but since 2000, average lev- els of data availability have re- mained stable between 41 and 45 percent (Chart 1). The average data availability for the six official education MDG indi- cators for 2000-2009 (55.6 percent) was higher than the average for all indicators, but, with just over half of the MDG data available, insuf- ficient information exists to fully monitor countries’ progress toward the education MDGs. 2 1 2009 was the most recent complete data year at the point of publication of this newsletter. 2010 UIS data was not completely released. June 2012 Volume V, Issue 6 One factor in the low MDG data availability averages is extremely Table 1. 20 Countries Reporting low data availability for the youth literacy rate indicator, which Data for the Highest % of UIS Indi- was lower than 21 percent until 2009, when it drastically in- cators in 2009 creased to 49.3 percent. The average data availability for youth literacy over time (2000-2009) was only 15.6 percent. In contrast, over 80 percent of countries over time submitted gender- disaggregated data for gross enrolment rate for primary educa- tion, and almost three quarters of countries submitted the same data for secondary education. The data suggests that we have much more information on enrolments on all levels from primary to tertiary than we do on primary completion or youth literacy. I. Data Availability by Countries and Regions Levels of data reporting vary greatly by country: Only six coun- tries reported data for more than 75 percent of UIS indicators in 2009 – Colombia, El Salvador, Kyrgyz Republic, Serbia, Latvia and Madagascar (Table 1). Ninety-nine countries reported data for more than half of UIS indicators, and 44 countries reported data for less than one quarter of UIS indicators (Map 1). Chart 2. Data Availability by Region (1990-2009) On a regional level, the East Asia and the Pacific region has the lowest average data avail- ability over time (2000-2009) at 32 percent followed closely by South Asia at 34 percent. Sub- Saharan Africa has remained stable since 2000 at just over 40 percent (Chart 2). The high- est regional data availability av- erages for 2000 to 2009 were in Latin America and the Carib- bean (50.3 percent) and Europe and Central Asia (50.9 percent). 3 June 2012 Volume V, Issue 6 Map 1. A Global View on Education Data Availability (2009) Source: UNESCO Institution for Statistics in EdStats, May 2012 The World Bank, the UIS, and the donor community have been working with local governments to im- prove their data collection, analysis, and reporting capacity. Compared to the 1990s, data has become much more widely available, but much work remains to generate reliable and timely education statistics that can be utilized to improve education policies and plans. This newsletter is produced every two months by the EdStats team. For further information and suggestions, contact: The World Bank - Human Development Network 1818 H Street NW, MSN G8-800, Washington, DC 20433 eservice@worldbank.org 4