Improving Quality of Secondary and Higher Education Statistical Data in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Antenna in Sarajevo of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in provided technical support to a cooperative endeavour between the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federal Institute of Statistics and the Republika Srpska Institute of Statistics to to create more reliable and quality statistical data and information for secondary and higher education in relation to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-F 2013).

In order to strengthen the responsibility of education authorities in BiH to achieve all targets within SDG 4, statistical institutions and educational authorities have created more reliable and quality statistical information ecosystems in the field of education, in line with international requirements (EUROSTAT, UIS, OECD, UNSDG). Henceforth, quality information on secondary and higher education programs will be available to the authorities for more informed policies and budgets for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals related to education.

When collecting data, statistical institutions face certain challenges when classifying programs and areas of education for secondary education and all levels of higher education according to ISCED-F 2013. More specifically, the challenges arise because each profession and education program is classified into one of 11 broad, 29 narrow and about 80 detailed areas of education and professional training and development for secondary education and all levels within higher education. Collected data must be coherent and consistent within all levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as internationally comparable.

„Statistical instituions in Bosnia and Hezegovina have been continously devoted to improving statistics on education in order to have quality data. Focus of this activity was to enhace data on secondary and higer education in relation to the international Standard Clasification of Fields of Education (ISCED-F 2013)“ – Gorana Knežević, Head of Department for social statistics, Agency for Statistics BiH.

Carried out in close collaboration with the education authorities and secondary and higher education institutions on all levels of government the activities refer to the review of current situations related to the application of the classification of the field of education in secondary and higher education statistics, as well as improving the quality of data in relation to ISCED-F, and for the needs of domestic and international reporting (UIS, OECD, EUROSTAT).

“This is a continuation of successful cooperation between statistical institutions and education authorities supported by UNESCO contributing to better infomed policies in order to enhance.” - Sinisa Sesum, Head of UNESCO Antenna in Sarajevo