What is counted and why in crisis-affected education systems? A comprehensive review of education data systems in Jordan

In the contexts of conflict and crises, timely and reliable data is critical but often very difficult to obtain for governments and other stakeholders responsible for providing education services for affected populations. In Jordan, the arrival of approximately 1.3 million Syrian refugees since 2011 has challenged the lower-middle-income country to adequately plan and provide schooling for all students, regardless of nationality. This data systems review explores what education data is available and how it is used by stakeholders in Jordan to improve access, quality, continuity and outcomes for children affected by conflict and crisis. The methodology included a desk review of relevant literature coupled with 11 stakeholder interviews. In total, 14 data systems were identified and grouped into five main categories: (i) international large-scale assessments, (ii) national large-scale assessments, (iii) education management information systems, (iv) other sample-level data, and (v) other population-level data. The predominant focus of these systems is on student-related data, followed by data pertaining to teachers and principals with limited ability to disaggregate data for students of different nationalities.

Overall, results found that 29% of data systems focus on data related to access, 50% collect data on continuity, and all collect data on quality and/or educational outcomes. Seven key challenges facing Jordan’s educational data systems were identified: capacity, device shortage, old data recovery, technical, financial, planning, and working in silos. Taken together, the results highlight the lack of refugee-specific educational data publicly available. While levels of refugee access to school (i.e. enrolment data) is available, data collected and used on disaggregate levels to assess trends and provisions for vulnerable student groups is either not carried out or not shared publicly. In addition, the review highlights the need for more meaningful qualitative data on educational quality and student outcomes, and the lack of sharing and coordination of data among various education stakeholders. This is of particular concern for the education of refugee students as the data collected on their schooling is fragmented among government and NGO stakeholders. These trends reflect some of the findings of other conflict-affected contexts but also illustrate how data systems have been developed recently to increase access to and improve education, and how Jordanian officials are particularly aware, through data, of the gender-based achievement gap.