The thematic indicators The 43 thematic indicators include the 11 global indicators for SDG 4 (see the Annex). Together, the indicators provide greater alignment between the education targets and national priorities and contexts, while maintaining cross-national comparability. They also allow for more in-depth review of each target and the intermediate steps needed to achieve the target as a whole. The global indicators address the key outcome at stake with each target. The set of thematic indicators will also act as reference indicators that can be used for monitoring progress at regional, national and sub-national levels. Countries will judge for themselves to what extent these indicators meet their needs and reflect their specific situations. It is expected that countries will want to develop indicators for their own use that take better account of their education systems’ stage of development—especially at national and sub-national levels. For example, some countries still face the challenge of achieving universal primary education, while others may be focused on expanding secondary and post-secondary opportunities, or on acquiring skills, knowledge and competencies, or on improving education quality and reducing inequities. Each of these priorities will require different types of data and indicators for effective monitoring. When not already available in the global and thematic sets, new indicators will have to be developed. In determining the 43 thematic indicators, each target was analysed with two purposes in mind: to identify the key concepts that needed to be measured in order to monitor progress towards achieving it; and whether existing policies would be sufficient to ensure the target could be met or whether further action, including remedial action, might be needed to get back ‘on track’. Table 3 lists the key concepts by target for which indicators have been proposed.
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Compared to the global framework, the thematic monitoring framework includes a wider view on a range of sectoral priorities by including a larger number of indicators to provide greater alignment between the targets and national priorities and contexts while maintaining international comparability (see Table 4). For example, the global indicator for Target 4.c focuses on the proportion of teachers receiving training in pedagogy/pedagogical approaches. This indicator is meant to be a proxy for overall teacher quality which underpins the performance of the education system as reflected in student learning. The thematic indicators allow for deeper tracking of different factors that are amenable to policy change and more broadly cover the concept of teacher quality by including six additional indicators related to academic qualifications, teacher motivation, and support for teachers. This richer set of data can be used to consider broader trends in teaching and learning. The thematic framework also allows a more comprehensive and nuanced view related to potential levers for policy change (see Table 4) by including different policy-based indicators (often in areas where direct measures of implementation are difficult and/ or not well developed). These indicators include: the number of years of free and compulsory education from pre-primary to secondary education guaranteed by governments; the mainstreaming of global citizenship education, HIV and sexuality education and human rights education in national curricula; and public policies aimed at promoting equity in educational opportunities.
Sustainable Development Data Digest