Background to in-depth review of education statistics, CES June 2011

Trevor Sutton, ABS

• International organisations and activities relating to education statistics

• Developments in education statistics in Australia • Issues and challenges• Directions for future development

Outline of paper

• Eurostat

• OECD

• UNESCO

• World Bank

• Nordic Social-Statistical Committee

International organisations

• Support (cost-effective) investment in skills and human capital

• Enhance the quality of teaching• Improve the quality of early childhood education • Achieve ambitious educational attainment targets

Australian education policy context: Productivity Agenda

• Australian Longitudinal Learning Database

• My School public access web site of student performance

• Early childhood education and care statistics

• Australian Early Development Index (AEDI)

Developments education statistics in Australia

Australian Longitudinal Learning Database (ALLD):Compartmentalisation of current education data collections

Australian Longitudinal Learning Database (ALLD):Enduring research base

My Schools web siteTransparency and accountability

• Measurement of human capital

• Social inclusion

• Longitudinal data/data linkage

• Greater use of administrative data

• Statistics on educational facilities (including skills of teaching staff)

• Measurement of e-learning

• Responding to changes in early childhood education

• Consistency and comparability in international statistics

Challenges for measurement

• What is the value of human capital stock?

• What is the relative contribution of different factors to changes in human capital stock over time?

• What is the economic return to investment in education?

• To what extent does human capital contribute to economic growth?

• How is human capital allocated across different occupation categories/industries?

Measuring human capitalKey questions

Human capitalInput and output variables to measurement

Key Variables:Educational attainmentSingle Year of AgeSexEarningsHours WorkedUnemployment rateLabour Force Participation RateEducation Enrolment RateLife Expectancy RateIndustryOccupation

Analytical OutputsLifetime Labour IncomeHuman Capital StockInvestment in EducationInvestment in Working ExperienceDepreciation of Human CapitalOutput of EducationRates of Return to EducationLabour InputsQuality Growth of Labour Force

• International collaboration

• Continued conceptual development and international comparability

• Increased use of administrative data

• Data integration

• Local level data to balance international data

Directions for future development