International education statistics and research: Status and problems

Abstract

Although governments throughout the world invest heavily in education, they spend remarkably little to monitor and evaluate their investment. Management of most of the world's education systems is done without adequate information and analysis. The international education database is often unreliable, and leaves out crucial measures of quality, process and output. Education research does not receive the same priority as research on agriculture, health or the economy. These shortcomings are due in part to the limited professional capacity most countries have to gather education statistics and carry out education research, along with strong resistance by educators and policymakers to being evaluated. Improvements will depend heavily on greater commitment at the political level to measuring education outputs, and on the emergence of global leadership in promoting comprehensive, reliable assessments of education systems.