How can EiEPC data be included in the future? A look at the Education Data and Statistics Commission Task Force

• In Event: 40 million more girls in school and 20 million more reading: Examining G7 Global Objectives through protracted crises and digital technologies

Proposal

Having reliable and timely data for flagship indicators is essential to inform policy and programme decisions about delivering quality education to all in any circumstance. In recent years, there have been important methodological developments to the estimation of one such flagship indicator: the out-of-school rate / population. The improvements have focused on combining multiple administrative and survey data sources to fill gaps and address challenges with imperfect population data. The model is also making use of the cohort structure of data to improve the consistency of long-term trends.

However, one of the weaknesses of the model is that it cannot take into account sudden increases in out-of-school populations in crisis contexts. Therefore, usual assumptions underpinning the model no longer hold. There are multiple challenges in producing reliable and timely data on the situation of schooling in crisis-affected areas. Conflicts and natural disasters often cause disruptions of data and statistical activities where system capacities tended to be fragile to start with. Regular data supply is interrupted because affected areas become inaccessible and/or data collection becomes a lesser priority. While it will take more than just compelling evidence to address the large unmet needs for children’s schooling in crisis-affected contexts, having technically robust data on relevant issues would certainly guide and strengthen advocacy and funding prioritisation.

But while data generation is severely affected in crisis-affected areas, some data are nevertheless collected. These data however, are not being utilised to assess how the global estimate could be adjusted because they are usually not in the right form and shape to immediately calculate out-of-school populations. In addition, the collection and analyses of such data are fragmented and separated from the global reporting mechanisms.

In order to address these issues, the Education Data and Statistics Commission has convened a task force to provide expert advice and guidance on adjusting country- and global-level estimates on out-of-school populations in crisis-affected contexts in a timely and reliable way. This paper will discuss the overall methodology for incorporating data that have been reported from these crises contexts including templates, tools and guidance on identifying and documenting existing data sources, mechanisms of data collection, processes and procedures of data sharing and dissemination, and developing criteria of their usefulness for producing timely and reliable country-level estimates on out-of-school rates that are aligned with SDG 4 reporting. This paper will reflect on how digital technologies can and have contributed to this process and will discuss next steps for the G7 Global Objectives and wider SDG reporting.

Author

• Christian Stoff, Education Cannot Wait