Restructuring UNESCO's statistical services—The “sad story” of UNESCO's education statistics: 4 years later

Criticism directed at the quality of UNESCO's education statistics led to the recent restructuring of the Organization's statistical services. This criticism, primarily supported by the World Bank and subsequently confirmed by consultants engaged by UNESCO, does not prove to be completely justified. In fact, a change in the political orientation of the statistical program appears to have been the main goal of the reform. Providing few significant (or new) recommendations to improve the other dimensions of data quality, the consultants’ reports essentially concentrated on the need for measuring and comparing educational systems’ performances in a strongly competitive world economy. While UNESCO's General Conference did not discuss the political aspects of the reform, the restructuring can be tied to UNESCO's loss of leadership to other international agencies, which have come to produce their own statistics and recommendations on education.