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"Education" statistical office

The "ministerial statistical office for Education" is part of the Evaluation, Forward Planning and Performance Department (Direction de l'évaluation, de la prospective et de la performance - DEPP) and is placed under the authority of the Minister for Education. The office's statistical coverage includes all levels of public and private education—from kindergarten to "baccalauréat".

Contents

Main missions

The ministerial statistical office is in charge of (1) designing and managing the statistical information system covering the education system, and (2) dissemination of results.

Through the studies that it carries out directly or commissions from third parties, it contributes—in liaison with relevant Ministry Directorates and organizations—to the analysis of the education system.

Statistical production

The statistical system on "national education" (i.e., school education) collects information usually at annual intervals. Management applications, even in their basic design, incorporate the information needed for statistical studies and use standardized classifications.

Censuses of students and staff are conducted via largely automated file transmission; this does not, of course, avoid the need for substantial checking and editing. Data are collected on educational institutions, courses taught, and school life.

Panels of school pupils are formed periodically in order to track complete education histories and gather family and social information that can be correlated with scholastic achievement. Conventional surveys of school-leavers document their school-to-work transition.

The ministerial statistical office compiles the accounts of the education. It contributes directly to the preparation of employment/training assessments with the Center for Studies and Research on Occupational Skills (Centre d'Études et de Recherche sur les Qualifications: CEREQ) and INSEE.

The ministerial statistical office manages all of the Ministry's management-related classifications and the register of educational institutions: the Ministry's information systems thus have a standardized content suitable for preparing statistical indicators.

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Studies and forecasting

The ministerial statistical office produces general studies and analyses.

Within the Assessment, Forward-Planning and Performance Directorate (Direction de l'Évaluation, de la Prospective et de la Performance: DEPP), it carries out studies on changes in the education system, curricula, and the determinants of scholastic achievement, as well as on resources (personnel, funding, and teaching tools).

A large number of studies focus on evaluating the performances of the education, and on decision making, notably forecasting student numbers to help determine the allocation of resources. This plays a role in the preparation and calculation of performance indicators within the Ministry.

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Dissemination

The ministerial statistical office provides inputs to a reference center that answers all requests for statistical information on education at the national and education-district level. For this purpose, it relies on databases that systematically receive results of all SDES statistical operations. The dissemination function (on paper of via Internet) is handled by the Promotion and Publishing Department under the Director of the DEPP.
An IT unit incorporated into the sub-directorate for statistical overviews manages the "ministerial infocenter" serving the entire Ministry and selected external users, so as to ensure high responsiveness to requests.

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Status in institution

The ministerial statistical office belongs to the Assessment, Forward-Planning and Performance Directorate (Direction de l'Évaluation, de la Prospective et de la Performance: DEPP), which is divided into two sub-directorates:

  • Sub-Directorate for statistical overviews
  • Sub-Directorate for performance of school education.

The ministerial statistical office comprises the Sub-Department of Statistical Overviews and the school education statistical studies office in the Sub-Directorate for performance of school education.

The ministerial statistical office is placed under the responsibility of a deputy to the director of the DEPP, the head of the statistics department.

The ministerial statistical office is represented at the rectorat level (the administrative echelons of the national education system, with 27 rectorats in the 22 regions of metropolitan France). These units, called "education-district statistical offices" (Services Statistiques Académiques: SSAs), collect and disseminate data at the local level. Their main role is in preparing information (indicators, forecasts, dashboards) for decision-making assistance and policy management by education-district offices.

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