General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Meeting of the Steering Group on Population and Housing Censuses (Geneva, June 2005) Report of the Task Force on Educational Characteristics Richard Morrison General Register Office for Scotland (UK)

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Emira Galanxhi. Albania. Anita Svarckopfa. Latvia. Alina Sobieszak. Poland. Branka Surkalovic. Serbia and Montenegro. Osman YILMAZ. Turkey. Simon Ellis. UNESCO. Spyridon Pilos. EUROSTAT. Angela Me. UNECE. Task Force Members

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Existing Recommendations –Educational Attainment (Core) –Educational Qualifications (Non-core) No Changes Made. –Field of Study (Non-core) No changes made. –School Attendance (Non-core) –Literacy (Non-core)

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Educational Attainment (Core) and Qualifications (Non Core) Changes Proposed in Report of Work Session The Recommendations should move to HIGHEST GRADE as the topic for collection. The need to clearly distinguish between highest grade completed and qualifications obtained should be clarified.

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Educational Attainment (Core) and Qualifications (Non Core) Possible Problems in Current Draft The Current Draft does not include a formal definition of GRADE. (consider Paragraph 165.) “Years does not work well as years of schooling might in some countries include a certain amount of repetition. Grade avoids this and would normally be counted from the first year of schooling ie entrance grade = Grade 1.” –S. Ellis (UNESCO)

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Field of Study (Non-core) No changes were made. There are no known issues at the time of writing.

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people School Attendance (Non-core) Changes Proposed in Report of Work Session It is sometimes difficult to measure school attendance as distinct from enrolment. The Recommendations should be clarified to address this problem.

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people School Attendance (Non-core) Arising Issues The concept of Attendance applies differently in the different stages of education. –Primary and secondary. Day to Day presence at an institution of learning –Tertiary and other e.g. internet study

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people School Attendance (Non-core) Possible Problems in Current Draft Active participation has been introduced as a concept to compliment the notion of attendance for non traditional modes of study. This was a late revision and the task force have not had adequate time to comment.

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Literacy (Non-core) Changes Proposed in Report of Work Session The meeting stressed the need to collect literacy as a separate topic from educational attainment. Functional literacy should be considered in place of literacy. It is recognised that this is not straightforward. Computer Literacy should be considered as a possible new topic.

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Literacy (Non-core) Possible Problems in Current Draft It is difficult to formulate a straightforward test of functional literacy. –Paragraph 183 may be an inadequate compromise. The draft may not be robust enough to prevent illiterate persons being recorded as literate using educational attainment. –Consider paragraphs 180 and 181.

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Computer Literacy (Non-core) Possible New Topic It may be worthwhile to include guidelines on the age of persons for whom this data is collected as with literacy. This topic may be relevant to the proposals considered by the families and households Task Force on availability of PCs at home, work or school.

General Register Office for S C O T L A N D information about Scotland's people Discussion Educational Attainment (Core) Educational Qualifications (Non-core) Field of Study (Non-core) School Attendance (Non-core) Literacy (Non-core) Computer Literacy (Non-core)