ISCED :International Standard Classification of Education : It is a systematic framework used by UNESCO in categorizing the statistics and information of education on international basis.
This system categorizes education programs and related qualifications by level and fields of study and delivers a common format for international comparisons and analysis.
In its essence, ISCED’s primary objective is to help compare education systems throughout countries by standardizing the indicators that define educational levels.
These levels often may comprise pre-primary stage, first stage of primary, second stage of primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary.
A major advantage of ISCED is that it remains relatively flexible for cross-national comparison, while still allowing each country to preserve the structure of its national education system. This flexibility enables countries, where necessary, to expand on those classifications or to add new categories or qualifications to ISCED as the need arises.
The above criteria can enhance the standardization and harmonization of data and hence comparability across different education systems; this facilitates the analysis and comparison of education data at the international level.
This is because through ISCED, countries of the world are able to cooperate and collaborate in the promotion of education at all levels. ISCED can be the key working tool, as it offers the universal terminology and classification that enables countries to find out what might be wrong with their systems, discuss the experiences and learn from each other, and compare their successes and failures with the outcomes of the other countries following the same rules.
In sum, the International Standard Classification of Education helps to ensure transparency, effectiveness and compliance with the standards in the systems of education in the world.