The Origins of the International Standard Classification of Education

Abstract

This article recalls the earliest attempts to compile international educational statistics going back into the 19th century and retraces the steps that led up to the formulation and adoption of the International Standard Classification of Education in both its original and revised versions. It is in large part the story of how international educational statistics came to be developed. Source documents that have long been out of print and/or not easily accessible to readers outside UNESCO are quoted at length.

¹John Smyth is a former United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) official (1972–2000). The views expressed in the article are the author's and do not represent those of UNESCO.

The assistance of UNESCO's Archives Service and the staff of the Documentation Centre of the International Bureau of Education, Geneva, Switzerland, in locating relevant reference documents, is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

²With the founding of ISI, the International Statistical Congresses were revived as biennial sessions of the General Assembly of ISI. Photocopies of early papers by ISI members concerning educational statistics are reproduced in a two-volume, limited circulation compendium prepared by ISI in 1995 (ISI, 1995). Particularly noteworthy for the scope of its coverage of the published data available for different countries, and for its acknowledgment of the problems of cross-national comparability, is an early paper (reproduced in the ISI compendium) on primary education statistics (by E. Levasseur, 1893).

³It was envisioned that the commission would meet for a month each year in Geneva and would be composed of a dozen eminent international figures in the sciences and humanities appointed by the council to sit in a personal capacity and not as government representatives. On the origins and work of the International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation, see Renoliet (1999).

⁴The assembly's resolution is reproduced in March (1928, p. 638).

⁵On the origins and early work of IBE, see Rossello (1943) and his “Historical Note” (Rossello, 1970).

⁶The international tables covered 24 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, India, Irish Free State, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Scotland, South Africa, Soviet Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Starting with the 1937 edition, The Year Book was published by Evans Brothers “in association with the University of London Institute of Education.” After a hiatus in 1941–1947 due to the war, The Year Book resumed publication in 1948 but without including tables of international educational statistics. Teachers College stopped publishing its Educational Yearbook after the 1952 edition and in the following year entered into an arrangement with the University of London Institute of Education for jointly preparing the Evans Brothers Year Book.

⁷Highlights of UNESCO's early work on international educational statistics are recounted in UNESCO publications (UNESCO, 1955, pp. 47–56; UNESCO, 1961a, pp. 26–35) and in Kappel (1966, pp. 661–668).

⁸UNESCO was established “for the purpose of advancing, through the educational and scientific and cultural relations of the peoples of the world, the objectives of international peace and of the common welfare of mankind for which the United Nations Organization was established and which its Charter proclaims” (preamble of UNESCO's constitution). On the establishment of UNESCO, see Valderama (1995).

⁹For a critical review of UNESCO's work on international literacy statistics during the period 1950 to 2000, see Smyth (2006).

¹⁰The word territories was utilized at that time to refer to countries that had not yet gained independence.

¹¹Professor Idenburg was well known internationally for his interest in educational statistics; several of his papers are reproduced in the ISI Compendium cited in footnote 2. The paper presented by UNESCO at the 28th Session of ISI held in Rome in 1953 contains a resume of the Expert Committee's recommendations together with a brief commentary on selected issues arising therewith (UNESCO, 1954, pp. 513–517). The paper is reproduced in ISI's Compendium.

¹²The tabulations are listed at UNESCO (1954, p. 515). The committee considered them as representing “a minimum programme … of tabulations of educational statistics for international purposes” (p. 515).

¹³See the preamble of the General Conference resolution in the appendix.

¹⁴During most of the period of 1950 to 2000, UNESCO's publications of international literacy/illiteracy statistics tended to give greater prominence to statistics of illiteracy. The reasons for this are explained in Smyth (2006, pp. 2–3).

¹⁵The Statistical Yearbook replaced an earlier series, Basic Facts and Figures (1952–1962), which presented selected educational statistics based largely on data provided by national publications (see UNESCO, 1963–2000).

¹⁶For a comprehensive annotated bibliography of the post–Second World War international literature on education and economic and social development, including the literature relating to “manpower planning and forecasting,” see Blaug (1966).

¹⁷Kappel was at that time the director of UNESCO's Office of Statistics, which the Division of Statistics had then become. His paper is reproduced in the ISI Compendium cited in footnote 2.

¹⁸An historical account of the process of drawing up ISCED is provided in UNESCO (1992b).

¹⁹The first draft of the proposed new educational classification was presented to the working group by a consultant, Mr. N. L. McKellar, of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada, who was also closely associated with an ongoing revision of the ISCO then being carried out by ILO. Copies of McKellar's first draft and a revised draft sent to a number of countries for comment in September 1966 have not survived—at least, a search for them in UNESCO's archives in 1992 was unsuccessful (UNESCO, 1992b, pp. 3–4).

²⁰“A final position ‘X No Education’ can be provided as required, e.g. when obtaining statistics of the stock of educated people from an enumeration of the population of an area as in a population census. Such a category is not needed for statistics of current educational operations” (UNESCO, 1976, p. 5). The digits 4 and 8 were not utilized, and no reasons were given in the ISCED documentation, although it has since been thought that ISCED's architects intentionally left gaps so as to allow for the possibility of inserting new level categories in future revisions of ISCED.

²¹It was recognized in ISCED that “some fields do not exist at every level, e.g. law and jurisprudence programmes are not found at level categories 2 or 3 while literacy programmes occur only at level category 1” (UNESCO, 1976, p. 13).

²²“Despite its known variability, a full-time year at school successfully completed is the most objective unit of education available as an international ‘yardstick’” (UNESCO, 1976, p. 6).

²³A comprehensive historical review of the worldwide manpower planning movement of the 1950s and 1960s has never been written. A useful critique of education-manpower planning from a “human capital” point of view containing many references is provided by Psacharopoulos and Woodhall (1985).

²⁴“Article 4: Focusing on Learning Achievement. Whether or not expanded educational opportunities will translate into meaningful development—for an individual or for society—depends ultimately on whether people actually learn as a result of those opportunities, i.e. whether they incorporate useful knowledge, reasoning ability, skills, and values. The focus of basic education must, therefore, be on actual learning acquisition and outcome, rather than exclusively upon enrolment, continued participation in organized programmes and completion of certification requirements. Active and participatory approaches are particularly valuable in assuring learning acquisition and allowing learners to reach their fullest potential. It is, therefore, necessary to define acceptable levels of learning acquisition for educational programmes and to improve and apply systems of assessing learning achievement” (World Declaration on Education for All and Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning Needs, 1990).

²⁵An extensive discussion of the issues relating to the classification of vocational/occupation-oriented programs is provided in UNESCO (1992d).

²⁶An extensive discussion of the issues relating to the classification of third-level programs is provided in UNESCO (1992a).

²⁷As noted, for example, by Hanushek and Wößsmann (2007).