# Methodology

## Dataset Overview

This dataset provides a comprehensive count of educational institutions across all 193 United Nations member states. It includes the total number of schools per country, with breakdowns by ownership type (public vs. private) and education level (pre-school, primary, and secondary), aligned with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) framework where possible.

**Grand Total**: Approximately 5,981,024 schools worldwide (as recorded in this dataset)

## Data Collection

### Sources

Data was collected from multiple authoritative sources:

1. **National Education Ministries**: Official government portals and education ministry websites providing national education statistics
2. **National Statistical Offices**: Official statistical agencies publishing education indicators
3. **UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)**: International education data repository
4. **Eurydice Network**: European Commission's network providing education system information for European countries
5. **Open Data Portals**: Government open data initiatives (e.g., Open Data for Africa, national data portals)

### Collection Methodology

- Primary preference was given to official government sources
- Data was cross-referenced with international databases where available
- Each record includes a source URL for verification and traceability
- Collection followed a systematic country-by-country approach covering all UN member states

### Collection Rounds

School counts were compiled in the **2024 research round** — the manual compilation of official statistics.

Each UN member state appears **once** in the output, tagged by the **`Collected Year`** column (2024). `Collected Year` denotes *when the figure was compiled* and is independent of the `Academic Year` field (which denotes the reference year of the underlying statistic).

### Collection Period

Data spans multiple years (2001-2024), with the majority of records from 2020-2024. The "Academic Year" field indicates the specific year each country's data represents. This temporal variation reflects:
- Different reporting cycles across countries
- Availability of recent official statistics
- Data accessibility constraints

## Data Fields

### Country Identification

- **Country**: Official name of the UN member state as recognized by the United Nations

- **Collected Year**: The collection round the row belongs to (2024). Each country has one row.

- **Date of Admission**: Date the country became a UN member state, formatted as DD/MM/YYYY

- **Country Code**: Two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (e.g., "US" for United States, "IN" for India)

### School Counts

- **Amount**: Total count of educational institutions in the country. This is the primary metric and represents the aggregate of all school types where available.

- **Public Schools**: Number of government-funded or state-operated schools
  - "-" indicates data not available or not separately reported

- **Private Schools**: Number of privately-funded or non-government schools
  - "-" indicates data not available or not separately reported

### Education Level Breakdown

Following the ISCED 2011 framework:

- **Pre-school** (ISCED Level 0): Early childhood education and pre-primary education institutions
  - Includes kindergartens, nursery schools, and early learning centers
  - "Combined classification" indicates countries that report pre-school combined with other levels

- **Primary** (ISCED Level 1): Primary education institutions
  - Typically serves children ages 6-12
  - Includes elementary schools and primary schools

- **Secondary** (ISCED Levels 2-3): Secondary education institutions
  - Includes both lower secondary (middle school) and upper secondary (high school)
  - Some countries report these levels separately in their source data

### Metadata Fields

- **Source**: URL(s) or reference to the original data source
  - May contain multiple URLs for countries using multiple sources
  - Provides direct link for data verification

- **Data Quality**: Assessment of data reliability
  - **Good**: Reliable data from official sources
  - **Excellent**: Highest-confidence data from official sources with complete coverage
  - **Okay**: Data available but may have minor gaps or rely on older/secondary sources
  - **Conflicting**: Sources disagree on the figure; requires reconciliation

- **Academic Year**: Year the data represents (e.g., "2023", "2022")
  - Blank values indicate the year was not explicitly stated in the source

- **ISCED Rating**: Classification standard used for education level categorization
  - **Sunstone Map**: Mapped to ISCED categories by Sunstone Institute
  - **Excel - ISCED**: ISCED classification from spreadsheet sources
  - **ISCED**: Direct ISCED classification from source
  - **No data**: Education level breakdown not available

## Data Processing

### Cleaning Steps

1. **Source Verification**: Each URL was validated for accessibility and relevance
2. **Standardization**: Country names aligned with official UN nomenclature
3. **Format Normalization**: Numeric values cleaned of formatting (commas, spaces)
4. **Missing Value Handling**:
   - Cells with "-" indicate explicitly unavailable data
   - Empty cells indicate data not collected or not applicable
   - Numbers with commas retained where present in source

### Quality Assurance

- Cross-validation with UNESCO UIS data where available
- Outlier review for countries with unusually high or low counts
- Source credibility assessment (preference for .gov domains)
- Temporal consistency checks for year-over-year changes

## Data Limitations

1. **Temporal Inconsistency**: Data years range from 2001 to 2024. Direct cross-country comparisons should account for different reference years.

2. **Definition Variations**: Countries may define "school" differently:
   - Some include all educational facilities; others exclude specialized institutions
   - Vocational and technical schools may or may not be included
   - Religious schools may be counted separately in some countries

3. **Completeness Gaps**:
   - Not all countries report public/private breakdown
   - Education level breakdown unavailable for many countries
   - Some fields contain estimates rather than exact counts

4. **Source Accessibility**: Some source URLs may become unavailable over time due to website changes or content updates.

5. **Classification Differences**: Despite ISCED alignment efforts, national education systems vary:
   - Age ranges for education levels differ
   - Some countries have unique education structures not easily mapped to ISCED

6. **Missing Data**:
   - Cuba and Turkmenistan have no school count data
   - Comoros has incomplete data
   - Several countries lack education level breakdowns

7. **Counting Methodology**:
   - Some countries count school buildings; others count administrative units
   - Multi-campus institutions may be counted once or multiple times

## Usage Recommendations

### Appropriate Uses

- Global overview of educational infrastructure distribution
- Regional comparisons with temporal context
- Identifying data gaps for further research
- Policy analysis at country or regional level
- Educational access research

### Considerations

- Always note the reference year when comparing countries
- Use "Data Quality" field to assess reliability
- Verify critical data points using original sources
- Consider population-adjusted metrics for meaningful comparisons
- Treat education level breakdowns as indicative rather than exact

### Citation

When using this dataset, please cite:
> UN Member States School Count Dataset. Sunstone Institute. [Year accessed]. Available at: [repository URL]

## Updates and Maintenance

This dataset is maintained and updated as new official statistics become available. The version number in datapackage.json tracks major updates.

### Update Priorities

1. Countries with "Conflicting" quality rating
2. Data older than 3 years
3. Countries with incomplete breakdowns
4. Newly released national education statistics

## ISCED Reference

The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011 framework:

| Level | Name | Typical Age Range |
|-------|------|-------------------|
| 0 | Early childhood/Pre-primary | 0-5 years |
| 1 | Primary | 6-11 years |
| 2 | Lower secondary | 12-14 years |
| 3 | Upper secondary | 15-17 years |

## Contact

For questions about the methodology, data collection process, or to report data corrections, please contact the Sunstone Institute data team.