Education statistics assessed by Eurostat
The production and dissemination of education statistics is assessed by a team of experts under contract of Eurostat - the statistical office of the European Union, from the perspective of its conformity with the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice (ESCoP).
The sector review mission of experts Dr. Gaetano Ferrieri and Mrs. Irja Blomqvist, offered at the request of the NBS, has taken place during November 22-25 and included meetings and discussions with the NBS management and heads of departments, as well as with other stakeholders.
During the review, the evaluators aimed at assessing, in particular, the level of compliance of the education statistics produced by NBS with the European Statistics Code of Practice , which is a self-regulatory instrument and is based on 16 Principles covering the institutional environment, statistical processes and statistical outputs. The core principles include:
- mandate for data collection and access to data (relevant institutional framework on education statistics, NBS access to administrative data and other data sources);
- impartiality and objectivity (statistical methodologies and related dissemination policies, error correction, public availability of data sources, statistical methods and procedures);
- statistical procedures (coherence of concepts and definitions, testing of questionnaires, data validation procedures, data review, agreements and cooperation with other national data providers);
- cost efficiency (internal and external monitoring measures, optimization of information and communication technologies, standardized solutions promoted by the NBS to improve efficiency);
- relevance (user interaction procedures, user satisfaction survey or similar tools);
- accuracy and reliability (evaluation and validation, error measurement, data processing, revisions);
- coherence and comparability (comparability over time, international comparability, cooperation agreements between the NBS and EU and Eurostat countries);
- accessibility and clarity (use of modern information and communication technologies, access to microdata, dissemination of metadata according to European standards);
- others
During the review mission, the representatives of the Ministry of Education and Research participated in an online discussion with the aforementioned experts on November 25, with the presentation of the current situation regarding the implementation of the Education Management Information System (EMIS), generated statistical data, data quality characteristics (e.g. coverage, completeness, periodicity, metadata, etc.), current challenges, plans and future visions on optimizing statistical processes for collecting and producing official statistics on education.
Based on the review findings, concrete recommendations will be formulated to improve the production of statistics on education and its alignment with European Statistical Standards, and subsequently an assesment report will be developed.
The education statistics Sector Review was undertaken within the framework of the EUROSTAT funded project “Global assessments, peer reviews and sector reviews for the ENP countries” and implemented by the company Devstat - Statistical Consulting Services S.L.
In the above context, it is worth mentioning that during the period of 9-13 October 2017 and 19-23 February 2018, the National Statistical System of the Republic of Moldova was subjected to a Global Assesment by Eurostat, within the project " Assessment of the statistical systems and selected statistical areas of the enlargement candidate countries and the European Neighborhood Policy".
Also, in 2011 the sector of population statistics was evaluated, within the United Nations joint project "Strengthening the National Statistical System", and in 2017 the industry statistics was evaluated within the project of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) "Improving industry statistics and developing industry performance indicators for policy analysis in CIS countries".
In the current year, the project "Strengthening efficiency and access to justice in Moldova", in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and with the financial support of Sweden, has launched the activity on assessment of the official Crime and Justice Statistics of the Republic of Moldova from the perspective of alignment with the European standards and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), foreseen for October 2021-January 2022.
