International Standard Classification of Education

The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) was designed by UNESCO in the early 1970s to serve ‘as an instrument suitable for assembling, compiling and presenting statistics of education both within individual countries and internationally’. It was approved by the International Conference on Education (Geneva, 1975), and was subsequently endorsed by UNESCO’s General Conference.

The present classification, now known as ISCED 1997, was approved by the UNESCO General Conference at its 29th session in November 1997.