Worldwide Education Statistics Enhancing UNESCO's Role (1995) / Chapter Skim
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5 Recommendations
5 Recommendations
Pages 46-60
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From page 46... ...
External agencies with a stake in better global education data that want more extensive data on education should be expected to help build capacity in individual countries and to support special and developmental activities beyond UNESCO's core responsibilities. Although we focus on the education statistics program, in keeping with our charge, we believe that the recommendations below are compatible with UNESCO's responsibility for statistical activities covering science, culture, and communication.
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From page 47... ...
A new mission statement is important in order to guide the structural and operational changes recommended below. In effect, a realigned mission will serve as a charter authorizing leaders to undertake the necessary additional personnel and resource allocation changes needed to revitalize the education statistics program.
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From page 48... ...
Beyond simply accepting the status quo, six alternative organizational rearrangements suggest themselves. Arranged roughly in order from least to most autonomous, they include: (1)
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From page 49... ...
The principal drawback to such a solution is that it does not offer the same degree of hope as a functionally autonomous unit for creating better relationships with information users and third-party organizations, does not take maximum advantage of the opportunity to engage in entrepreneurial activity, does not free the division from UNESCO's considerable administrative and financial operating requirements, and does not offer as wide an opportunity for a completely fresh start.
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From page 50... ...
BICSE has identified this as the preferred organizational alternative principally because it preserves what has been productive regarding the past and holds the prospect for creating a positive new future. Greater visibility, a greater degree of independence from UNESCO bureaucratic rules, senior leadership at a high level, and an enterprising charter would enhance the agency's attractiveness to highly qualified statistics professionals, inspire confidence within the expanded community of data users and prospective external donors, and create freedom for creative solutions to long-standing problems.
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From page 51... ...
The idea could be held in abeyance; if over time our preferred alternative, the functionally autonomous agency, proves infeasible or ineffective, then complete privatization could be reconsidered. Also, the functional autonomy alternative does not preclude operating partially through private-sector contracts if the new agency's leaders so choose.
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From page 52... ...
Finally, the division's personnel development plan should provide resources for training existing staff in data base and spreadsheet applications and should recognize that staff training will be an ongoing need due to expected turnover. Although the division has made good decisions to date about the new computer platform and, within the limits of resources, is implementing these decisions efficiently, plans are needed for providing for more powerful hardware and for addressing technical and policy issues involved in providing wider user access to the data base.
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From page 53... ...
Even more may be required to provide for WAN access to external users, including a new server for a dissemination data base, as described above. Direct access to a dissemination data base via the Internet would be simpler to install and maintain than relying on existing WAN linkages to UNESCO's mainframe computer and would be more compatible with emerging technology standards and patterns of development generally.
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From page 54... ...
Interactive file access: The user can interact directly with the data base to select specific data elements, combinations, calculations, and reports. Direct access would also provide a more receptive foundation for the kind of client/server data base developments described in divisional plan ning documents.
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From page 55... ...
It should aggressively seek to develop partnerships with data users who can help to fund supplemental activities consistent with its goals of improving global education statistics and indicators. Among the candidates for these core functions are the following: Establishing common definitions and data standards.
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From page 56... ...
Information about which countries have chosen to adhere to which standards could also help data users in interpreting the data provided through UNESCO. Although common definitions and reporting standards cannot be developed overnight and are especially problematic when the capacity of data providers varies as much as it does in UNESCO's global universe of nations, the division should make it an ongoing priority to improve quality in the data it collects and reports.
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From page 57... ...
It promises to address the concerns of policy makers in both nations and international agencies about education information relevant to decision making; and, in its bottom up approach, it seems to give countries important incentives to improve their statistical systems. Focusing developmental activities at a regional level gives countries with different statistical capacities and education problems an opportunity to devise locally appropriate measures.
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From page 58... ...
This data base should also include all relevant notes and other information necessary to interpret adjustments to or changes in national data. The documentation specialist should identify decision rules and other quality control procedures and prepare quality control and interpretation manuals to accompany the computerized dissemination data base and other division data products.
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From page 59... ...
Data users have suggested many topics on which they would like to have better information, including such things as the education of women and girls in UNESCO member states, progress in achieving basic education for all, the extent of private schooling efforts around the world, and the academic achievement of students. The list could be extended substan
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From page 60... ...
The new governing board we envision for the reconfigured division should encourage its leadership to seek outside support and should make sure that any externally supported activities that are undertaken are important and are compatible with the division's responsibilities to UNESCO and its member states. CONCLUSION In sum, the foregoing set of recommended reforms is intended to enhance worldwide confidence in UNESCO's statistical capacity and to create a solid foundation on which to build an improved global system of educational statistics and indicators.
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