Glossary
Country Income Group Classification
- Low income countries (LICs): Economies with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of $1,045 or less in 2014, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method.
- Middle income countries (MICs): Economies with a GNI per capita of more than $1,045 but less than $12,736 in 2014, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method.
- Lower middle income countries (LMICs): Economies with a GNI per capita between $1,045 and $4,125 in 2014, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method.
- Upper middle income countries (UMICs): Economies with a GNI per capita between $4,125 and $12,736 in 2014, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method.
- High-income countries (HICs): Economies with a GNI per capita of $12,736 or more in 2014, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method.
- Fragile and conflict-affected states: For statistical purposes, the Commission has used the 2016 World Bank list of fragile situations. This defines a fragile situation as one with a) an average Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) rating of 3.2 or less, or b) presence of a UN or regional peacekeeping or peacebuilding mission during the past three years. The list includes only IDA eligible countries and non-member or inactive territories/countries without CPIA data. IBRD countries that are included in the list qualify only by the presence of a peacekeeping, political, or peacebuilding mission due to nondisclosure of CPIA ratings.
Education Levels
- Pre-primary: Programs may be referred to in many ways; for example, early childhood education and development (ECE/ECD), play school, reception, pre-primary, preschool, or educación inicial.
- Early Childhood Development (ECD): Refers to the physical, cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development of a child from prenatal stage up to age eight. This development involves a wide range of activities from child care to nutrition to early education.
- Early Childhood Education (ECE): The education portion of the broader term ECD.
- Primary: Provides learning and educational activities typically designed to provide students with fundamental skills in reading, writing, and mathematics and establish a solid foundation for learning and understanding.
- Secondary: Program often made up of two stages: lower and upper secondary. Lower secondary education is generally designed to continue the basic program of the primary level, but teaching is typically more subject-focused, requiring more specialized teachers for each subject area. The end of this level often coincides with the end of compulsory education. In upper secondary education, instruction is often organized even more along subject lines and teachers typically need a higher or more subject-specific qualification.
- Post-secondary: Includes tertiary, higher education, vocational, technical, and employability training. Higher education programs build on secondary education, providing more complex learning activities in specialized fields of education. Tertiary education includes what is commonly understood as academic education, but also includes advanced vocational, technical, and employability training.
- Technical and vocational education and training (TVET): Programs designed mainly to prepare students for direct entry into a particular occupation or trade (or class of occupations or trades). Vocational education may have work-based components (e.g., apprenticeships, dual-system education programs). TVET can include programs for students of secondary or post-secondary age.
ADB– Asian Development Bank
AfDB– African Development Bank
DAC– Development Assistance Committee (OECD)
DFID– Department for International Development (United Kingdom)
ECD– Early childhood development
EFA– Education for All (UNESCO)
GAVI– Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization
GEMR– Global Education Monitoring Report (UNESCO)
GDP– Gross domestic product
GER– Gross enrollment rate
GPE– Global Partnership for Education
GPGs– Global public goods
HICs– High income countries
IBRD– International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank)
IADB– Inter-American Development Bank
IDA– International Development Association (World Bank)
IMF– International Monetary Fund
LICs– Low income countries
LMICs– Lower middle income countries
MDB– Multilateral development bank
MDGs– Millennium Development Goals (UN)
MICs– Middle income countries
MOOC– Massive online open course
NER– Net enrollment rate
NGO– Non-governmental organization
ODA– Official development assistance
OECD– Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
PISA– Program for International Student Assessment (OECD)
R&D– Research and development
SABER– Systems Approach for Better Education Results (World Bank)
SDGs– Sustainable Development Goals (UN)
TALIS– Teaching and Learning International Survey (OECD)
TIMSS– Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
UIS– UNESCO Institute for Statistics
UMICs– Upper middle income countries
UN– United Nations
UNCHR– United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNESCO– United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
UNICEF– United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
WHO– World Health Organization (United Nations)