For any researcher concerned with global issues, education is one of the major indicators that reveal a nation or region's development. Capturing data relevant to education that can assist the researcher is often a maze of resources with difficulties in interpretations and/or comparisons. The Global Education Database (GED) is a fairly new database from the Office of Education, a department of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This resource is designed to provide easy access to statistics on international education and related developing countries' socioeconomic conditions. Data retrieved includes the status of basic education, higher education, workforce development and youth development. This information is to assist in country strategic planning and also to measure a way of meeting millennium development goals that have been developed by the United Nations. Sources for the statistical information are the USAID Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) (www.measuredhs.com/) and UNESCO (www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/). Data from UNESCO is updated on a quarterly basis and DHS provides information yearly.
The website is divided into five major components: background information concerning the GED; education data; analytic tools; publications; and related links. There is also a link for contact information.
This ambitious undertaking combines the data from two diverse organizations and compiles the data in a more user friendly format. A beginning user of this database should consult the references and related links that are provided in the background section to take in the most of its capabilities. The UNESCO Millennium Development Goals report for 2011 (www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/%282011_E%29%20MDG%20Report%202011_Book%20LR.pdf) and the International Standard Classification of Education (www.unesco.org/education/information/nfsunesco/doc/isced_1997.htm) are essential in understanding the scope and goals of this resource.
The first data section of GED, education data, includes two segments to this programme: data by country and data across countries. These segments give a more detailed breakdown of data from UNESCO and DHS. The UNESCO segment includes educational data from pre‐primary to tertiary levels of education. Data includes such indicators as completion rates, trained teachers at each level, public expenditures and literacy rates. The DHS data includes adult literacy rates; attendance ratio from pre‐primary to tertiary; and health issues including family planning, vaccination rates, births and under‐five mortality rates. The difference in the data by country and data across countries is that one can search multiple indicators from the data by country. In the data across countries one can search several countries but only one indicator. The results of an interactive search can be downloaded into HTML or Excel formats. At times the Excel download feature did not work but this error was inconsistent and difficult to identify the cause. The HTML version worked all of the time.
The second GED data section is the analytical tools. This provides data in six areas: rapid education assessment calculator; summary of most improved countries; rapid assessment summary scores; regional and subregional averages for key indicators; child dependency ratios; and millennium development goals. The dynamic capabilities of the rapid assessment calculator are enhanced by the accompanying reference materials. The rapid education assessment calculator uses a radial graph in html format to easily demonstrate the human capacity in a country. The status of a country can be compared to other countries, regions, or the same country approximately ten years ago. The radial graphs then allow for identifying trends over time or for comparisons between countries or regions to be simultaneously visualized along the five dimensions. A comparison of Afghanistan currently and ten years previously in areas of education and economic performance, infrastructure, poverty rates and workplace environment was aptly demonstrated by this tool. A researcher can easily change this search to compare Afghanistan to the region. The visual presentation in the radial graph makes it easy for the researcher to understand the trends of the country.
A few additional features would make the database more user‐friendly. One would be a link to the UNESCO glossary of terms (http://glossary.uis.unesco.org/glossary/en/home). The glossary helps further define many of the indicators. Because the database should be used by a diverse group of researchers, it is necessary to clarify the indicators. Another addition would be to have notes describing each of the analytic tools. The rapid education assessment calculator has a great section describing the calculator and defining the indicators. It would be a great benefit to have a similar page for the regional and subregional averages for key indicators; child dependency ratios and the millennium development goals.
Overall, this is an enormous help for studying the complex issues of education and the link to a country or region's growth. This is a recommended site for universities and colleges.
