Review of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)
The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) was developed by UNESCO in the 1970s as a framework for the international comparison of national education statistics and indicators. The current version of ISCED was adopted in 1997. The text of the classification is available on the website of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in the six official UN languages. Figure 1: Cover of ISCED 1997 in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese Table 1 lists the seven levels of education defined in ISCED 1997: pre-primary (level 0), primary (level 1), lower secondary (level 2), upper secondary (level 3), post-secondary non-tertiary (level 4), first stage of tertiary (level 5), and second stage of tertiary (level 6). Table 1: Levels of education in ISCED 1997 ISCED level Description 0 Pre-primary education Initial stage of organized instruction, designed primarily to introduce very young children to a school-type environment. 1 Primary education No...