International Standard Classification of Education - ISCED 2011
The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011) was created to serve as a tool for collecting, compiling and presenting comparable indicators and statistical data on education at both the national and the international level.
ISCED covers all types of organised and sustained types of education of children, youth and adults, including those with special needs, regardless of the institution that provides education or the form in which it is provided.
ISCED classifies educational programmes by their content along two main axes:
- levels of education
- fields (areas) of education.
The first recommendation concerning the international standardisation of education statistics was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1958. Thus, ISCED was established as a system suitable for assembling, compiling and presenting statistical data both within individual countries and internationally. It was approved at the International Conference on Education in 1975, and afterwards endorsed by the General Conference of UNESCO.
However, over the years it became necessary to update and revise the classification, and for that purpose it was revised and ISCED 97 was created. It was in use until the end of 2013. As a result of the scientific and technological developments, there are different forms of vocational education and training, i.e. new levels of education, resulting in the revision of this classification into ISCED 2011.
As part of the process of transformation of the statistical system for the purpose of providing statistical data for the needs of the market economy, and for establishing a harmonised statistical system with the Member States of the European Union and beyond, one of the priorities of the State Statistical Office was the harmonisation of the national classifications and nomenclatures with the international ones.
Therefore, the State Statistical Office in collaboration with the Ministry of Education has prepared the document Education System in the Republic of Macedonia in accordance with ISCED 2011.
The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011) is a national standard, adopted by Decision of the Government (Decision on harmonisation of the system of data on education in the Republic of Macedonia with the International Standard Classification of Education - ISCED 2011 "Official Gazette of RM" No.177/2013).
The Recommendation of the General Conference of UNESCO states that UNESCO Member States are not required to abandon their national education system. They are only required to develop a system for harmonisation of national data with international standards.
As of 2014, ISCED 2011 will be used in all statistical surveys related to education.
The application of ISCED 2011 facilitates the transformation of national statistics on education into aggregated categories that are internationally comparable.
As regards ISCED fields of education, UNESCO is working on amendments to the detailed descriptions of the revised fields, which are to be completed at the end of 2014. For this purpose, the website of the State Statistical Office will still include ISCED 97, containing a Manual on the fields (areas) of education and training in ISCED 97.
ISCED 97
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