Pursuant to Republic Act 10625, also known as the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is mandated to prescribe and maintain uniform statistical standards and classification systems to harmonize and ensure comparability of government statistics based on international standards/guidelines, such as the United Nations international standard classification systems.

One of the national standard classification systems being maintained by the PSA is the Philippine Standard Classification of Education (PSCED). The PSCED is a detailed classification of all educational levels in the Philippine educational system. It is based upon two principal criteria, namely (1) level of education, and (2) subject-matter content of the study. It is patterned after the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the purpose of assembling, compiling, and presenting education statistics, both nationally and internationally.

So far the Philippines has prepared the following classifications of education patterned after the corresponding international standard classifications of education:

Thus, on the table shown the 2017 PSCED is the latest version of updates on the PSCED which is aligned after the 2011 ISCED and 2013 ISCED Fields of Education (ISCED-F) both developed by UNESCO.

In the Philippines a Technical Working Group on Education Classification (TWGEC) was created to oversee the crafting of the 2017 PSCED. It was chaired by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) together with its members: Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Labor and Employment – Bureau of Local Employment (DOLE-BLE), Department of Science and Technology – Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines (UNACOM) and the PSA. The TWGEC then submitted the crafted draft to the PSA Interagency Committee on Statistical Standards and Classification (IACSSC) for endorsement to the PSA Board and it was approved with the PSA Board through PSA Board Resolution No. 13, Series of 2017 for adoption by all concerned government agencies and instrumentalities.

Presently, PSA handles and maintains seven (7) classification systems namely: 2009 Philippine Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (PCOICOP); 2002 Philippine Central Product Classification (PCPC); 2018 Philippine Standard Geographic Classification (PSGC); 2009 Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC); 2012 Philippine Standard Occupational Classification (PSOC); 2015 Philippine Standard Commodity Classification (PSCC); and the updated 2017 Philippine Standard Classification of Education (PSCED).

The tri-regional dissemination forum for the updated 2017 PSCED was conducted last 26 November 2018 at One Central Hotel located along Sanciangko St., Cebu City. It was hosted by Mr. Peter Enfestan of PSA-7. During the forum Assistant Secretary Josie B. Perez, Deputy National Statistician of PSA gave the welcome address and quoted that a dissemination forum is actually a celebration – a celebration because of a major output has been completed, after a long period of preparation, review and final evaluation and that it is also a reason to rejoice because national and international social statistical classifications like the PSCED are being revised every ten to twenty years only. She added that dissemination forum aims to facilitate and enhance the coordination and integration of efforts towards the improvement of education statistics in the Philippine Statistical System (PSS) through the use of common statistical standards and classification systems and to ensure awareness of the various standard statistical classification systems like the PSCED, both at the local and national levels. DNS Perez then stated that education is the most potent tool that can break the vicious cycle of poverty and that with the passage of Republic Act 10533, also known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 which introduced the Senior High School Program in the secondary levels, the Conditional Cash Transfer Program, Unconditional Cash Transfer Program and recently Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education of 2015 which provides free college education. Hence, it is but timely for the passage and adoption of the 2017 PSCED so that we can come up with an overall picture of the progress and accomplishments of these programs. After DNS Perez, Assistant National Statistician Candido J. Astrologo, Jr. then presented the highlights and salient provisions of the updated 2017 PSCED to the participants. Then a presentation on the automation of the classification codes was presented to the group which then can be downloaded through Google Playstore for android devices. An open forum followed.  

At the end of the dissemination forum, Chief Statistical Specialist Leopoldo P. Alfanta, Jr. gave the closing remarks and thanked the participants from the academe, other government agencies, and PSA personnel especially from Regions 6 and 8 and Central Office.

(SGD) ENGR. ARIEL E. FLORENDO
Regional Director